February 17, 2017
By Saeed Qureshi
Scores of
devotees lost their lives in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks at the shrine of the Sufi Saint Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar
in Sehwan Sharif Sindh Pakistan. While 88 persons are reported to have died, a
huge number running into hundreds has sustained serious and even life
threatening injuries.
A Pakistani Taliban militant faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has claimed
responsibility for this most barbaric carnage of the people who had come to celebrate
the annual festival at the tomb of the saint and express their devotion. This
attack cannot be termed as sectarian but patently it is a terrorist activity by
such groups who want to destabilize Pakistan after failing to turn it into a
theocratic state.
One can only ponder with extreme anguish as to how there
are heartless people who kill their fellow countrymen or otherwise human beings
who have no role to play in politics or in governance. If such ghastly
massacres are religiously or sectarian-bias-based, then it is time to rid the
country and people of this sectarian hooliganism.
Pakistan has been victim of the terrorism perpetrated by
the religious outfits and bands of various categories and hues whose aim is to
turn Pakistan into a religious state. Such groups are mostly from the Sunni
faith although within the Sunni faith there are many sub-sects who differ with
each other over the interpretation of Quran and Sunna (tradition and sayings of
prophet Muhammad).
The Wahabi faith is against the people who believe in shrines
and saints and a host of rituals. The Wahhabis are also divided in several
sects but on the whole they have hugely organized themselves and have enormous
funds and committed members to lay down their lives for the sake of their creed
and beliefs.
Also, there are secessionist groups wanting to break away
from the federation of Pakistan. These groups have been fixated on the sordid mission
of weakening Pakistan by insurgency and armed militancy. They are supported and
abetted by the countries and groups hostile to Pakistan and its survival.
On the other side the minority sects both within the fold
of Islam and outside fall victims to the majority Sunni sects and are killed
and attacked from time to time. Shias and Christians and similar other minority
sects have been suffering at the hands of militant Sunnis who kill and attack
them invariably, as if that was a crusade and tantamount to great service to
the pristine Islam. Pakistan is a new state and the faithful of various sects
have been living in this land here even before for centuries. So, in a way Pakistan’s
creation became a handy ploy for the majority sects to annihilate and kill
their rival sects in the name of Islam.
There have been countless incidents of religious and
sectarian vandalism in Pakistan in which a huge number of the people have been
killed or maimed. What kind of Islamic or religious state these heinous
perpetrators want to make and build on the blood and tears of the people of
Pakistan and ruination of the families?
One question is of paramount significance. India the neighboring
country has majority of Hindus. There are Sunnis and Shias and other minority
sects like Ahmadis, Parsies, Bahai, and Agha Khani etc. We have not come across
any incident in that unislamic country such as Shias and Sunnis falling out
with each other in a way that they do within the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Pakistan is a democratic country that came into being for
the people professing Islam but not for a particular brand of Islam. It looks
as if the creation of Pakistan turned out to be fatal for religious freedom and
instead has let loose a sectarian war and confrontation taking a heavy toll of
its citizens only because of the diversion in faith.
Pakistan is not destined to be a Sunni faith-based
country but for all Muslims and non-Muslims with absolute religious freedom and
equal rights to all the citizens. Saudi Arabia can afford to have an Islamic
state based upon Wahabi belief. Yet they are maintaining it because there is
monarchy which is intolerant of any dissention against the Wahabi brand of Islam.
Wahhabism is not acceptable to such religious Islamic denominations as
Chishtia, Qadria and Naqshabandi as well as main sects such as Shia’ism.
The enmity between Sufiism and Shia’ism is a spillover
from the past. The destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258 AD was the
result of the faith-based enmity between the Sunni caliph Mustaasim Billah and
the Shia prime minister Ibne Alqami. In the present times, the wars being
fought in Iraq and Iran are basically between the followers of Shia faith and
the those professing the Sunni faith.
The following statement is related to the
third caliph of Islam, Hazrat Usman. when he was being assassinated by a group
of Hooligans. In that he said to them that “you are killing me but the discord
that would result from this among the Muslims would not be remedied till
eternity”. That prediction is so truthfully evident which we can witness even
in the present liberal times.
In the context of Pakistan, the tag of Islamic state should
be done away with and only federation of Pakistan or state of Pakistan ought to
be put in place. It was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who abandoned his secular and
democratic credentials and enforced a rigid Islamic system under pressure from
the religious zealots. Despite that he lost his power as well as life at the
altar of opportunism and lust for power.
In view of the latest horrendous massacre of the innocent
citizens in Sehwan Sharif Pakistan, the state should gird up its loins and mercilessly
crush the religious intolerance and rampant terrorism. Those elements and
groups that are waging armed rebellions to territorially divided Pakistan must
also be dealt with sternly. Such a successful endeavor has been made by the
armed forces in Swat some few years ago and it needs to be repeated.
