New Delhi: A 70-year-old Christian man’s lynching by an extremist mob in the Sargodha region of Pakistan’s Punjab province has enraged human rights activists and citizens alike. They are ‘embarrassed’, ‘ashamed’ and ‘want to give up on the country’.
The incident has brought Pakistan’s battle with blasphemy accusations and mob-led verdicts to the forefront again. A violent mob comprising more than 100 people – including children – burnt a Christian man’s house and shoe shop in the city’s Mujahid colony. All because they saw a few pages of the Quran strewn around his house. The victim Nazir Masih was brutally attacked and is critical. His daughters claim he was framed.
Ten members of a minority Christian community had to be rescued by the police following the event. The mob reportedly consisted of members from the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a conservative political group. Before this, a member of the TLP (formerly led by the notorious Maulana Khadim Rizvi) allegedly engaged in a dispute with one of the targeted individuals, The Nation reported.
“Having successfully thwarted a religiously motivated lynching in Sargodha, the Punjab authorities must now focus on the much harder part: holding the perpetrators accountable,” the newspaper further wrote in a scathing article.
Where’s the accountability?
Minority rights activists around Pakistan are now demanding more accountability from the state. The Punjab government, however, is yet to issue a statement.
One disgruntled X user wrote, “Princess’ silence on Sargodha shouldn’t surprise anyone. It isn’t a place where she can doll up in some uniform or look like a princess”, referring to Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz. Another replied, “Princess is married to the Captain with “lynch mob mentality”. So no surprises…”
“State has allowed TLP to operate freely, with impunity & enabled it to spread hate & fear. It is for this reason that it is growing in strength & its ideology is gaining traction. Its enablers have failed to recognise what TLP is capable of, #Sargodha incident is just a trailer”, barrister Ahsan J Pirzada wrote on X.
Noor-ul-Amin Mengal, Punjab province’s Home Affairs Secretary, is one of the few politicians to have condemned the incident. “Pakistan belongs to all of us, and no injustice under the pretext of religion will be tolerated,” he said according to a press release.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also voiced its concern over the Sargodha situation. Alleging that the state was complicit in filing a false FIR, Christian activist Luke Victor wrote on X: “Your bigotry is exactly what has made me a stranger in my homeland.”
Writing a long note on the incident, the famous Pakistani podcast The Pakistan Experience wrote on X: “Kids stealing shoes after a Christian man accused of blasphemy was lynched by a mob – this is where the powers that be have brought Pakistan.”
In another tweet, they wrote, “This is not Quaid’s Pakistan. This is Ayub’s Pakistan”
Blasphemy remains a contentious issue in conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan, where mere accusations can incite violent reactions. Minorities have often been attacked over unverified claims.
In August of last year, a mob targeted multiple churches and residences in a Christian enclave located in Jaranwala, a town about 70 miles away from Lahore. The attack was incited by accusations of Quran desecration against two Christians.
While blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan, no state executions have been carried out for this offence so far.
Also read: Pakistani journalist confuses Modi’s urban naxal as ‘Arab nasal’. Indians teach him Hindi
The role of TLP
Political analysts and activists attribute the escalation of such violent incidents to the growing influence of TLP, an Islamist party initially formed to advocate for the release of Mumtaz Qadri, a police guard, who had assassinated Punjab governor Salman Taseer. Taseer had advocated for reforms to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws in 2011. Despite Qadri’s execution in 2016, TLP transformed into a political entity, emerging as the fourth-largest party in the country’s general elections this year.
“One of the biggest challenges Pakistan currently faces is radicalism by TLP. The religious group was raised by the state and is completely out of control now, expanding, and especially targeting young jobless boys who divert their energies towards religious minorities or anyone falsely accused of blasphemy,” Absa Komal, a Dawn News anchor, wrote on X.