As I turned on the TV this morning, the news channels were showing torched cars, burning trains, vandalized shops, blocked roads, and people with sticks attacking buses in different cities of Indian Punjab. Apparently a Sikh guru has been murdered last night in Vienna, Austria and the followers of the guru were protesting his murder by destroying properties of innocent people, who have nothing, whatsoever, to do with the tragic incident, not even remotely. As I write, at least two people have died and several others injured.
The incident reminded me of the protests held in Pakistan against the caricatures of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), that were drawn and published in Denmark. Protesters burnt dozens of cars, hundreds of motorcycles, vandalized several shops, attacked banks, international foods chains were set ablaze and several people died.
Now one may ask the protesters that why were they punishing their own innocent country men for cartoons that were drawn by someone living in a different continent? What was the fault of the owners of those motorcycles and cars? Why were the 'Pakistani' shop keepers being hurt? And all these questions should be asked to the Sikhs, who out of anger, have caused pain to fellow Sikhs. Why were they protesting violently against violence? Pictures of young lads with sticks in their hands destroying small shops, breaking windscreens of buses were scary, and unfortunate. I cannot understand how would this help them. I just can't.
Every time an unfortunate incident would occur, either in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, we'd start destroying things around us and call it a 'protest.' Why can't our protests be civilized like the ones carried out in West? Why do we have to be self destructive all the time?
The incident reminded me of the protests held in Pakistan against the caricatures of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), that were drawn and published in Denmark. Protesters burnt dozens of cars, hundreds of motorcycles, vandalized several shops, attacked banks, international foods chains were set ablaze and several people died.
Now one may ask the protesters that why were they punishing their own innocent country men for cartoons that were drawn by someone living in a different continent? What was the fault of the owners of those motorcycles and cars? Why were the 'Pakistani' shop keepers being hurt? And all these questions should be asked to the Sikhs, who out of anger, have caused pain to fellow Sikhs. Why were they protesting violently against violence? Pictures of young lads with sticks in their hands destroying small shops, breaking windscreens of buses were scary, and unfortunate. I cannot understand how would this help them. I just can't.
Every time an unfortunate incident would occur, either in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, we'd start destroying things around us and call it a 'protest.' Why can't our protests be civilized like the ones carried out in West? Why do we have to be self destructive all the time?
The last time when the Sikhs were offended by the Guru, they wrecked havoc in Bombay..! I saw it with my own eyes and many 'protestors' were people I knew.. the kind that would never hurt a fly..! But that day, they were beating a guy into pulp, smashing windscreens etc.
ReplyDeleteWe would be much better off without religion..! If there was a God and he gave us religion.. I implore Him to take it back! We don't deserve it. It's like a transistor gifted to a monkey... we like it but we don't know what to do with it..! x_X
All sad news all around!!! :(
ReplyDeleteSikandar, I don't think that even West can tolerate the heat when it comes to the serious issues that contradicts the interests of commoners. We have the example of what happened in the procession carried out during G20 Summit this year? People did die and got hurt during their encounter with the police in the UK. Further, the riots that took place in Paris that caused collateral damage and claimed lives too.
ReplyDeleteSo, It’s just not the East, it’s the West too.
However, in Pakistan it’s the political agenda that is involved as well to show how weak the existing government is and to de-stabilize the existing infrastructure.
Well you make a lot of sense Ammara. But still if we compare our protests to that of west, ours would be far more bloody than there's.
ReplyDeleteBut these incidents are unfortunate anyway. I mean if we talk about people protesting the cartoons in Lahore and creating a havoc in city were only harming themselves.
Yesterday, another catastrophic event took place at Mall, some terrorists (so called Talibans) detonated a bomb and brought the police building to rubbles. My office happens to be at Mall View Bank Square so it is hardly a few kilometers away from the disaster site. I can tell you that when the bomb went off my office building quaked such that we thought it is going to collapse; thankfully it did not. At first it looked like an earth quake but we could see a thick cloud of smoke in the sky and my colleagues knew then and there that it was a bomb blast. That was indeed a terrible incident and it shook me deeply and for the first time I was scared, though people around me were joking and laughing about it since this is the 4th time they have witnessed such a mishap.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Rehman Malik promptly issued a statement that since Talibans are being defeated in Sawat and FATA this is their way of retaliation. President and Prime Minister as usual condemned the attack (it seems like this is the only thing they are capable of doing). My question here is why have we put these allegations on Talibans? What makes us so sure that only Talibans are capable of carrying out such activity? It is known to everyone that there are many external agencies (Iranians, Russians and others) actively operating in Pakistan these days and the mission is to de-stabilize Pakistan. So, why are Talibans being blamed for everything that is happening around us? It could be that the government wants people to strongly abhor Talibans and to wipe out any sympathies or doubts people have for them.
As per our prime minister, a recent Poll concluded that 75% pakistani people voted for the army operations against militancy but we tend to forget that 80% of our population is do not have means or resources to the electronic media so which community does this 75% represent?
Another question is that if we allowed US to carry out drones in Pakistan territory, violating our sovereignty then why not allow Britain, India and others who have been the victims of the terrorist activities to carry out drones? I do not see the logic.
I get to read that Talibans are gathering in Karachi or Lahore so are we the next chosen one’s after Waziristan and Sawat? Do I see an end to the war that has started, the answer is NO, I don’t.
I hope you could pen down ur views on some of the reservations above in your next blog.
i agree with you Ammara that most of the times all of that destructions takes place not because common people like us want that, but because our political parties sitting in the opposition waiting for their own turn want to give a bad name and destablize the existing government. But we cannot blame anyone because common people like us dont make any efforts, we are too busy enjoying the comforts of our homes, that matters like these dont look like our responsibility and so political parties or any other organization who wants to cause chaos in our country and their hired brain washed followers cash the whole situation. So my question is do we have the right to complain?
ReplyDelete