Unaccustomed to peaceful protests, Lahoris praise Shia resilience

Over a thousand Shia Muslims of Lahore ended on Monday a nearly two-day peaceful sit-in after Islamabad gave in to demands for protection by the Hazara Shias by sacking the provincial government led by Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani.

Men, women and children spent two nights in freezing conditions to show solidarity with their Shia brethren who had refused to bury the victims of Pakistan’s worst single attack on Shias, which killed more than 116 people in Quetta on Thursday.

Notorious outlawed terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba, and Taliban, who call Shias non-Muslims, claimed responsibility for the suicidal attack and car bombing on Thursday night.

Hundreds of Shias, who account for 20 percent of the population, and according to Human Rights Watch, suffered record levels of violence last year, along with members of other sects and religious affiliations peacefully protested on The Mall and GT Road, demanding the Pakistan Army take control of Quetta.

Residents of Lahore urged authorities to encourage peaceful protests by accepting the demands of the Hazara Shias and by making sure that no future attack is carried out on them.

The protesters vowed to continue sit-in protests through the cold, windy days and often subzero nights, until government officials listened to the demands of the families of the Quetta victims.

“It takes great strength, courage and desperation to sit in near zero temperatures for two days and nights. The protesters went to great lengths to alert the world as to how the Shia Hazaras are being ignored by Pakistani government and media,” said Kazim Mehdi, a resident of Lahore Cantonment.

However, Ammad Khan, a resident of GOR I, said that he had to suffer inconvenience due to the sit-in at The Mall.

“The Mall and the GT Road are used by half of Lahore’s population everyday; the protesters should not have blocked the road. They could have protested somewhere else,” he said.

“What they have done is absolutely right. No one was listening to them. Television media in Pakistan had been ignoring the issue until dharnas (sit-ins) sprang up across the city in solidarity with the Shia of Quetta,” said Mustjab Rizwan, who lives in Aitchison College. “Two days’ inconvenience is nothing compared to the carnage which took place in Quetta.”

Sauran Ather, a student of Punjab University, said, “They ask for nothing. What these fearless protesters were pleading across the city’s cold streets is for the government to look into the demands of the Shia Hazara community and to give them the protection that can easily be provided by the Pakistani government.”

Muhammad Omar Khan, a human rights activist, said that a non-violent protest is a moral protest.

“Rather than generating hatred, it spawns public awareness regarding how serious the issue actually is,” he said. “Non-violent protests, like those carried out by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, reduce the moral legitimacy of those who use violence.”

“Our government is in a habit of listening to the demands of violent protesters of the lawyers’ movement and the YDA. However, by accepting the demands of these peaceful protesters, they need to set an example for all future protests,” he added.