Have pity on innocents

This Sunday, August 17, Jamat-e-Islami observed death anniversary of military dictator Zia-ul-Haq by deceiving the nation by presenting it as Gaza Day. Pakistanis are justified to ask Jamat if ever it observed a day for 50,000 civilian and military personnel killed by terrorists in the last decade. Jamat would never denounce these terrorists. On the contrary it called them ‘our brothers’ and martyrs while rejecting the sacrifices made by Pakistan army who laid their lives fighting these very terrorists as ‘mere dead soldiers’.

As Jamat’s counterparts were busy holding Azadi March in Islamabad, Jamat chose to hold its Gaza March in Karachi by closing main highway to airport, throwing the whole city’s traffic to chaos. While watching the march’s live reports on TV screen, I felt disgusted to see a four-year-old innocent boy wearing a (most probably) fake suicide jacket. Both the boy and his proud father were making victory sign while receiving loud applause from the mob. I don’t know what sort of message Jamat wants to convey to the outside world — are we Pakistanis so cruel and heartless beasts feeling no shame in putting a suicide vest on a small kid? It’s obvious Pakistanis can’t travel to Israel or Gaza, which means once this kid is big enough, he will be brainwashed to kill his own countrymen. Time and again we have seen teenage boys have been used to cause immense destruction and bloodshed.

Can anyone stop Jamat and many other religious parties whose oxygen supply is hate-filled exploitation of general public? But who can stop them while terrorists are standing on their back? During 2013 elections, Taliban kept the left-wing political parties out of election campaign by not only threatening them but also killing and disturbing their public rallies. Taliban represent the mess which was created by Zia, now Jamat is observing his death anniversary by naming it Gaza Day. What a height of hypocrisy!

MASOOD KHAN

Jubail, Saudi Arabia