You might be next

But keep clam and carry on

One can come up with thousand different excuses when your heart and mind are not on the same page. There was yet another deadly attack on Hazara Shia community and hence it was followed (in fact legitimised) by a tirade of fresh balderdash explaining who is controlled by whom, what proxies are active and our most favourite of all: where America and India fit into all this. For those implying yet again that this is not a religious but a political issue need to realise that it is in fact their retarded identity, which is not a religious or political but a mental issue. My words are bitter because I see no point in being soft on pettifoggers who indulge in legitimising and apologising for ruthless killers.

The facility and propensity with which we take refuge in ‘mulk dusman anaser’, one can only feel elated and thankful to the ever looming infidel enemies of the state for lurking just around the corner and not letting us fall short of lame explanations every time we see a big ugly question mark lingering on our respective ideologies.

As far as reality is concerned those (un)intelligent conspiracies are as shallow as the dumb ideologies they are used to support. For anyone entertaining these questions on regular basis desperately need to run a double self mental checkup and make sure if his/her imagination has any (or at least farfetched) causative relationship with the reality. But that’s just a wild wish.

Kudos to our imagination, that so far we have successfully managed to come up with thousand different ways on how to attack citadel of Islam, because one fine day a bunch of infidel countries might decide to pick up Pakistan (just like that) and make it a point to destroy it (again just because they might feel like doing so despite the fact that there are some 50 odd other Muslim majority states in the world as well). One such book that could come pretty handy if some day certain super intelligent shadowy force might actually want to stir things up could be: ‘A thousand different ways to destroy the Islami qila of illusions: a practical guide for dummies – because we are oh so special’.

Those braggarts who are content by naming just the LeJ and indirectly sanctifying the rest of the terrorist outfits are walking on a thin rope. At best its only going to save their face, not the rest of innocent citizens. Mind telling us the difference between TTP and Lej? Or let us hope that by now apologists have invented a yard stick to measure the anomalies between all those Jihadi outfits that work with in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Perhaps start with telling us, which one of these has a knack for attacking in a less deadly manner (because after all they are supposed to be the good guys). The fact of the matter is that attacks on Hazaras did not begin to occur only in the past decade. Destruction of Bamiyan statues located in Afghnaistan, revered by the Hazaras as the remnant of their forefathers was perhaps the first most prominent manifestation of Taliban’s hatred towards Hazara community. And we know very well that TTP is an extension of Afghan Taliban, same goes for the rest of them.

As sit-in entered into its third consecutive day, an agreement was reached and a targeted operation began. The government claimed to have killed four LeJ militants and about over a hundred suspects arrested. Sounds good enough to send the heart broken relatives back to their homes and hurriedly sweep dust under the carpet for now. But who is going to give a guarantee that just like several other LeJ terrorists, this time there will be no easy escapes from right under the nose of security agencies? Can anyone tell for sure that this time it’s different because there will be no divine acquittals and no rose petals showered on killers? Is there going to be a conscious effort to stop those so-called clerics, anchorpersons and intellectual terrorists from legitimising and advocating fundamentalism? Who is going to ask that one person to be answerable to the court for eulogising Taliban rule in Afghanistan and giving them a clean chit? And most importantly, does anyone has the power to shout it out loud and clear that from now on killers will be treated as killers and just that, both on particle and intellectual grounds?

Or are we going too wild with wishful thinking again?

As much as you would like to proclaim all this a bunch of concocted lies, Bengalis are not the only one to have suffered at the hands of army and its puppet politicians, Blaochis are very much made to stand in the line as well. God knows if, like Bangladesh, Balochistan too will ask for an apology some years later. Yeah that sounds incomprehensible and outrageous for those who are still adamant on pretending to believe (and make others believe) that the army always dips itself in aab-e zam zam before messing up with country’s affairs.

Those who say lines cannot be drawn and there must be talks are seemingly not yet shaken by a blast near them. Lines have been drawn; that is, either stand with Taliban or stand with the rest of us because there is no space for middle ground anymore. Otherwise your condolences are no different than those pretentious aunties exclaiming with fake sobs “bohat afsoos hua bhabhi” while enjoying samosas.

The need of the hour is to name and shame the apologists and in case if you are one of them then I’d propose get done with this drama of shedding crocodile’s tears on Shia killings and wait till they get you or your loved one of these days. As one widely shared meme said; keep clam and carry on – you might be next. Till then with a broken and heavy heart one can propose we fix a permanent + (plus) sign with the number of deaths reported because after all it’s an ever increasing number with no full stops in sight.

The writer is a political satirist. She can be reached at [email protected]