Daily Times

Spare a thought for the people of Parachinar. First militants strike them, leaving more than 100 dead. Then they are subjected to law enforcement gunfire for daring to protest the government’s seeming indifference to their plight.

We stand with the people of Parachinar, which is a Shia majority area and, as such, has been on the receiving end of deadly terror attacks for years. Yet this time the people rose up only to be met with a Frontier Constabulary (FC) that reportedly opened fire on them, killing four; thereby essentially blurring the lines between terrorists and the state.  According to unofficial reports on social media – the protestors are demanding the court martial of the general who gave the order to shoot.

Meanwhile, the response of country’s leadership has been highly disappointing to say the least. On Tuesday, the Interior minister appeared on television to (rightly) condemn Indian security forces’ atrocities against the people of Kashmir. Yet on Parachinar the honourable minister was silent. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cut short his London visit and reached Bahawalpur in the wake of the oil tanker tragedy — yet he stayed away from Parachinar. So, too, did the COAS on the grounds of bad weather. Moreover, no government official has yet contacted the protesters who are demanding something as basic as the right to live. The ISPR statement that was released later on Wednesday asserted that sectarian and ethnic colour was being given to the spate of incidents in Parachinar. This statement dangerously furthers the narrative that extremist groups come up with following every terror attack targeting religious minorities. The “don’t say Shias were killed, say Muslims were killed” mantra enables the hands of the perpetrator. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that vows to “rid Pakistan of Shias” claimed responsibility for the Parachinar bombing. When the perpetrator proudly accepts responsibility for an attack — it is the height of impoliteness to pretend you don’t know why that aggression happened. One wonders if this apparent change in the military’s tone has something to do with the country’s role in Saudi-led military alliance. We sincerely hope this isn’t the case. Just as we sincerely hope that those who believe that hiding the identity of the victim helps foster national harmony will soon come to their senses.  *

Published in Daily Times, June 29th, 2017.