Event highlighting Rao Anwar’s encounters ‘forcefully shut down’

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–DG Parks Mirza says event was shut down because it was ‘vandalism’ 

KARACHI: An installation titled ‘Killing Fields of Karachi’ by artist Adeela Suleman displayed at Karachi’s iconic Frere Hall as part of the Karachi Biennale 2019 was “forcibly shut down” on Sunday by men in ‘plainclothes’.

 

While the lower hall of the building housing the exhibit was sealed, a press conference by lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir was also disrupted by the DG Parks, who snatched mics and forced him to stop the presser. The verbal altercation barely stopped short of physical violence.

“The press briefing was ‘disrupted’ by ‘unknown’ men who threw away mics of media and shamelessly tried to censor us,” the lawyer said in a Twitter post after the incident.

According to the details, the art piece also included a video showing Naqeebullah Mehsud’s father and the scene where Naqeebullah, an aspiring model from South Waziristan, along two others was murdered allegedly by then SSP Rao Anwar.

“You all must have seen pillars installed here which symbolise Karachi’s bloody history — the 444 murders which were committed between 2011 and 2018 by Rao Anwar. This is not a matter of dispute. This is a fact which is part of police record,” Nasir said at the press conference, hurriedly called after the event was shut down.

“There are graves here marking the deaths and there was a video projection which contained visuals of Naqeebullah’s father, and visuals of the place where Naqeebullah and three others were murdered,” he added.

Nasir also revealed the threats received by the men who desired the exhibit’s shutdown.

“At 11 in the morning, some people came here who introduced themselves as belonging to sensitive organisations and they said this room should be closed and put under a lock, otherwise all the materials, laptops, projectors, paintings, will be destroyed,” he said while adding that building’s guard too was scared off by men who claimed to be from sensitive agencies.

The creator of the exhibit on Anwar’s extrajudicial killings, Adeela Suleman, expressed her dismay at the shutdown of her artwork.

“My aim was just to tell a story. I was, in fact, repeating an event that took place a year earlier. It [the display] contained no such thing which was not already part of general public knowledge,” she lamented.

“If artists can not express themselves in their own way, then I really can’t say how we will ever have any creation of art and who we will have to take permission from,” she added.

However, DG Parks Afaq Mirza told reporters that “making graves is not art but vandalism”.

He further told that the park was for public but not political activities, which should be conducted anywhere in the city, but not on government properties

The incident was quickly picked up by the public on social media. Eyebrows were raised as to why the exhibit, which was not even created by a well-known artist, ruffled so many feathers.

Prominent figures also spoke about censorship by the state.

 

Lawyer and columnist Hassan Niazi compared the Sahiwal killings with the censorship of Rao Anwar’s 444 murders.

 

Journalist Hamid Mir also called out the state’s hypocrisy.

 

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