Fahad Rizwan
”There were the times when mystics use to hover around our lands ,chanting ‘gal smjh li ty rola ki ay, aye raam ,raheem ty maula ki hy’ though i was not lucky enough to saw that but as been told by my elders Hindu’s ,Sikhs and Muslims celebrating each others festivals , mourning on each other’ dead and living as one who are united with ties forged over centuries , the relations welded and evolved with joint culture ,traditions and vernacular.. This was also the case with ashore , an annual observation in memory of prophet’ grandson who stood against the despotic regime of his era and in retrospect was mercilessly butchered on the desolate desert of kerbala , though the tradition is mainly a shia exclusive but in Indian subcontinent the tradition is commemorated by all the communities , I am told that Hindu’s ,Sikhs , Muslims all of them use to lament on this day , shia people used to practise self-flagellation and some Hindu’s and sunni devotee also used to join them , mainstream however use to express their respect to the martyrs of kerbala by offering flagons filled with milk and water or in form of emblems decorated with the insignia of prophet’ family …. I am 22 now , very vague anamneses still linger in my subconscious, i am standing in a city centre with my cousins ,,, shias are lamenting by self-flagellation , sunnis standing there are offering water and milk to the zealots ,by passers and all of us ,,dispersing after some time peacefully retreating to our homes …. Never ever we encountered any hate speech or derogatory remarks regarding those mourners lamenting over imam ‘family … But as I grew older tide start to turn harsher and harsher every year Is ‘not it an innovation ? They said,,, where is it written to weep over imam husain? We must not go there it is haraam , shias have been cursed by hazrat zainab if they not beat there chests they would develop an itching , they are from a progeny of yazeed, they slay a sunni infant and sprinkle the blood over zuljanah , the hatred go so intense that some of my acquaintance openly celebrated the killings of shias in blasts ,why I asked them ? and they retort ‘you don’t know, they don’t accept sahahba and believe hazrat ali is superior than hazrat umar ,,,, ‘’ could this excuse is legitimate enough to justify the carnage ,the mass slaughter perpetuated by fanatics ? I always wondered … During my late school days we were told by our teacher about the ‘true’ believes of shias and the ‘true’ incident of kerbala ….our teacher used to ask us ‘is there any shia sitting among you’’ the class used to respond with utter silence and then he used to ‘guide’ the juveniles towards ‘true’ path…. in pakistan with every passing day it is becoming harder and harder for those who think on humanitarian grounds to find some space in this narrative which is filled with violence ,obscurantism and myopic interpretations of religious text , they better act upon this axiom ‘’Do not think. If you think — do not speak. If you think and speak — do not write. If you think, speak and write — do not sign. If you think, speak, write and sign — don’t be surprised’’ I found this dictum useful some couple of months back when our comrade and companion khudi ali lost his life in a suicide attack, scores were killed in January this year when bomb hit hazaras in quetta this year .shia and socialist organisations held country wide solidarity marches and sit protests , I also joined those shia sit protests along with our socialist friends , when i returned home i was really desperate to see scenes of mothers lamenting there young ones ,sitting on freezing road cold as ice and weeping bitterly over the corpses of their deceased . I told my cousin and he said ‘’ they must be systematically eliminated’’…………….. where would this hatred would going to lead us ? i wounder..
The day was Friday ..November 15, 2013 ,, i was informed by my comrade that a sectarian clash has erupted in the central part of our city , it is old part of Rawalpindi build during British era ,the narrow alleys and congested buildings ,rusting sheds and vintage surroundings ..i went there along my friends . which was once the site of charm and hustle bustle looked like a wreckage as the area has been a site of some battle , fire , ambulances ,army and violence … the burning sites of raja bazaar area which remained a site of sectarian clashes for a whole day, now zealots were chanting TALEBAN ZINDABAD,NAPAK FAUJ MURDABAD and KAFIR KAFIR SHIA KAFIR there..shia houses had been attacked and imambargahs had been ransacked ,vandalized in that part of my city .. mourners there said that it all started when mullah from a talem ul quran madressa started praising yazeed with words like sayedna yazeed razi allah anho and ridiculing shias ,chants of KAFIR KAFIR SHIA KAFIR were raised and all of this venom was erupted from loudspeakers ,then those present inside the mosque start throwing bricks from the top in which certain mourners get injured .it is after that incident shia people assaulted the mosque and beat those who created tumult . No common believer was present there and all those who created this fuss were extremists from a banned terrorist organization , seven of them get killed in a clash , mob set fire on the building in which adjacent shops, madressa and mosque get burnt …….. police ran away from the site and there was no army present ..mob snatched the guns and beat the govt security forces . military came to site after maghrib prayer around 5 pm ,,, had security forces would’ve be in there in time there would not be such a chaos …….. We know that this madressa remained a hub of lasher-e-jhangvi . ships-e-sahahba cadres groom here , these people are taleban supporters why security forces not occupy it when they were well aware of lashker’ opposition to shia people? are they not responsible for this carnage which my city witness . The question arising in my mind off and on is why military establishment has kept a blink eye over this issue the very foundations on which this country is standing is about to detonate . Those leaches sucking it juice .if it all get exhausted from where shall they going to find a nectar?
Is our military establishment or some sections of it still nourishing a monster , a Frankenstein monster which is sucking the blood of our toilers ,of the masses … our military establishment and security agencies are the biggest stake holders in this live or die game against extremism , they must not forget that this working class is the stem ,the very foundation on which they have build there nest .. this Frankenstein monster is chopping the stem which lifts the burden on which there nest lies … not for the love of people ,for the good of working class ,for the peasant who sow seeds in our fields ,for the workers who sweet in factories ,for those white collars on whose taxes these parasites live….. They must counter this monster for there own privileges ,to protect DHA , so they may dance in parties ,they may get there voracious appetite fulfilled in banquets, for there villas in garrisons ….so here i am speaking to you who has witness all of this madness ,our generals cant remain ignorant , believe me u are living aloof from us in your cants ,in your sanctuaries isolated from the rest, from masses ….. u might not be aware of this volcano which is erupting beneath your feet … u could see it’ manifestation in rawalpindi in which the city find itself amidst violence unprecedented before …imagine Such violence engulfing the industrial hubs of Lahore, faisalabad and other centre of central Punjab .The hubs of our fragile economy from where shall this dying sick would find some blood in her veins ,from where the state would generate the revenue , from where on the earth people would going to invest in our country, and then from where our army will find here share in budget , a lion’ share ,,, they must never forget DHA is here , cants and garrisons are here as long is this country is here …once this country ,this federation would collapse …. this military clique would also collapse along it . So here I request to the military establishment of this country.. Love yourself, secure your privileges by crushing these fascist tendencies as they are spreading like a plague and detonating the foundations, the very fabric of our society..i have seen people erupting hatred and passing pathetic expressions towards their fellow countrymen who are from some other religious denomination … what would happen if this hatred would get itself reflected in some other ways …. Where would we shall find ourselves and where would be our army then? The sole stakeholder in this lives and dies game… ”
Author can be reached at fahad.rzwn@gmail.com
