Daily Times

Sir: I was waiting for Najam Sethi’s take on Benazir Bhutto’s murder and as always he did not disappoint. He gave voice (and in fluent, easy language) to the truth — the truth we always want to evade. What a sane analysis amidst all the chaos and crazy conspiracy theories!

Alas, this will still fall on deaf ears. We have become so cynical and so paranoid as a people that we just cannot take a fact as it is. This is a country where half the population decides on issues like marriage, employment and business by virtue of digital istikharas done by some maulvi with an orange beard; while the other half pays another maulvi to drive away the evil eyes cast upon them by their jealous relatives by invoking jinn slaves.
In this society, ‘agencies’ and America are the most favoured blame-getters.
Hardly anyone clearly, unequivocally disavows Islamist extremists, the same religious zealots who have been killing people left and right for the last so many years in the name of religion and Islamic superiority. Yes, it was a collective mistake that led to their creation — USA, the Middle East, Pakistan and the USSR were all involved — but what is stopping us now from disavowing and condemning them? Call them what they are. Rise against them. It does not matter if they say that Islam and Allah are on their side. One cannot be on the wrong side of humanity and the right side of God. Sorry, we will not take it any more.
These criminals knew well what Benazir Bhutto’s rise to power would have meant for them. That is why they murdered her. Why didn’t the angry supporters of the PPP torch illegal mosques and madrassas instead of destroying banks, businesses and properties that belong to the common man? Fight the real enemy: we should all unite and defeat these extremist mass murderers.
RASHID HASAN
USA