Bahawalpur Massacre & Jang Urdu Writers

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By Asif Mall. UK
I regularly read Daily Jang, and I have been reading it with special interest since the Bahawalpur tragedy, where 18 Christians and one Muslim lost their lives at the hands of religiously motivated terrorism. First of all I w

The special concern I would like to share is that I haven't read any article of condemnation from any of the mainstream Urdu columnists, who are regularly writing on page 4 of Daily Jang. I have always regarded these columnists as intellectuals and experienced journalists of my country. They are supposed to be the eyes, ears and tongue of the Pakistani society. If they don't write anything about or against this heinous act of terrorism against Pakistani Christians, then it would obviously mean that our society is not only blind and deaf, but dumb too. In Urdu language there is a proverb that silence means semi-agreement, in which case our mainstream Urdu writers apparently seem to be in half agreement with those mindless terrorists. This is a very painful thought as a Pakistani Christian, and I am struggling to find excuses not to believe it, but don't know how to do that.

With careful analysis, some of the reasons that I could think of, for them not writing about it are as follows. First one is that may be they don't have the moral courage to stand for the truth, because they will be cut off from the mainstream writing community. Secondly, they are afraid for their own lives, as well as the lives of their families for writing against the
terrorists. Then it means that the whole society if is in a hostage situation at the hands of the religious extremists, which should be a very serious concern for all the patriotic Pakistanis. Third is that they have double standards, and don't regard Christian minority in Pakistan as important, as the Muslim minorities in the western world. Because if even a small incident happens to Muslims in the UK or USA, then all of these writers seem to be in a competition that who would shed more light on that subject. But clear incident of terrorism towards Christians in Pakistan escapes their attention.

I believe that it is need of the time that these writer should use their pen for uniting all Pakistanis, both Muslims and Christians, to struggle together against those extremists, who are working to destabilise our beloved country. This is the only way we can make our country one of the strongest and most respected nations in the world. Pakistan belongs to all Pakistanis, and no one has the right to kill other Pakistanis in the name of religion or sect.

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