This editorial space might as well be called the obituary section given the distressing news of death it carries on an almost daily basis. Such is the state of affairs in Pakistan that we bury our brave everyday and keep searching for the crimes which led them to their end. Not two days ago, it was Saleem Shahzad and today we write for another courageous soul.
Almost all men and women have ideals they live by but few are great enough to be willing to pay the price for those very ideals. Professor Saba Dashtyari was one such man who paid the ultimate price in death. Brutally gunned down by unidentified gunmen on Wednesday, he was an unrelenting voice propagating for the rights of the Balochis and speedy recovery of the many missing persons. He was a seasoned academic who had been serving in the University of Balochistan for twenty five years. Not only was he active in promoting the cause of the missing persons, he made unmatched contributions to the promotion of Baloch culture amongst them almost 24 books and the establishment of the Syed Zahoor Shah Hashmi Library – Pakistan’s largest repository of Baloch literature.
Sadly, he isn’t the only professor of the UoB to be killed in the recent past. As many as four of his colleagues have been assassinated in the past few years. The anger of the students of the University is apparent as they mourn their beloved mentor and respected teacher. How much more blood will have to be spilled till the establishment realises that this atrocious suppression is not the answer? How much will the fault-lines have to deepen before the powers that be confess their sins? They think that silencing the crusaders of truth is equivalent to vanquishing the truth but it is not so. In the wake of recent events, the cries of accountability for these lives lost are reaching a crescendo and the truth must out – sooner not later.
Once when giving an impassioned speech about the fate of missing persons in a seminar, the professor was heckled by a woman to stop speaking. His simple reply, “Aap sach say kyun darti hain?” (Why are you afraid of the truth) But in this country, we are all afraid of the truth because it is very ugly indeed.
