Implications of Sialkot tragedy

The gruesome incident of lynching of an innocent Sri Lankan citizen, who had worked in a garment factory in Sialkot since 2012, by an angry mob over a patently false accusation of blasphemy, only underscores the barbarity and depravity of the crime that the religious right is capable of committing in the name of faith.

The motivations for this heinous crime were only peripherally related to blasphemy and, as media reports suggest, they were an outgrowth of simmering tensions between workers and the garment factory management.

Mr. Priyantha Kumara had been urging the factory workers to pull up their socks and disgruntled workers reacted by accusing him of committing blasphemy when he threw away a piece of paper into the dustbin. The enraged mob used blasphemy as an excuse to kill the man, later torching his dead body in broad daylight.

What makes this tragic incident truly shocking is the role of law enforcement authorities. The local police not only failed to show up on the scene of crime in sufficient numbers, but also failed to engage in any effort at dispute resolution.

The crime was witnessed by a mob of onlookers, many of which were sympathizers of TLP, and were heard raising its trademark slogans against Mr. Priyantha.

Some of the arrested leaders of this criminal act openly called for Mr. Priyantha’s murder and, according to some eye witness accounts, chased the hapless victim to the second floor of the building and hit him with iron rods, stones and sticks. The post mortem report released clearly states that various bones of the dead man had been crushed, and his head had been bludgeoned by the mob. His charred body was burned beyond recognition.

Obviously, what happened to Mr. Priyantha deserves our utmost condemnation as people, as a nation and as those who believe in peace, and as Muslims.

The Pakistani officialdom, including the Prime Minister and the Army Chief, has collectively condemned this barbaric act, but the larger question of the state’s complicity in failing to discourage the rise of religious extremism and militancy still remains.

There is a large body of academic literature that chronicles the Pakistani state’s repeated appeasement and empowerment of forces of the religious right to achieve its political ends and win elections, with little realization that pursuit of this myopic agenda will ultimately threaten the cohesion of our society.

These acts of appeasement and patronage range from attempts to use of religious groups to target political opponents, funding the religious right and allowing them to stage dharnas to force their demands.

Instead of protecting the lives and property of all its citizens, the Pakistani state and its organs have been deficient in performing their constitutional duties. The state paralysis in dealing with the religious right has resulted in complete breakdown of law and order and, in the absence of state responsibility, the organized mob is willing to act as a judge, jury and executioner.

What should be done to reverse this alarming trend? The first thing that Pakistani state needs to do is to adopt a “hard” approach and a policy of zero tolerance towards forces of religious bigotry, violent extremism and religious militancy. This would entail empowering the law enforcement agencies to deal with transgressors of law through a rapid dispensation of justice. The police and the judiciary have to be on one page, backed up by the coercive power of the state.

This is necessary to dispel the impression that Pakistan has become a soft state vulnerable to the machinations of violent armed groups, especially those using the appeal of religion to promote their agenda.

The role of political leadership is going to be very critical in sending the message to the forces of religious extremism, that they will not hold the Pakistani state hostage in the name of religion. Instead of sending mixed signals about the role of religion, the Pakistani state must clearly spell out its agenda, namely that no group will be given space to interpret religion according to their own viewpoint.

In a Muslim society, the issue of Islam is a settled question. No group or political force is allowed to engage in extra-judicial killing in the name of religion.

There is also an urgent need to reform the process through which application of blasphemy law is invoked and applied. Under Musharraf, there was an attempt to tighten the application of the blasphemy law by implementing steps such as filing a complaint, producing material evidence and registering a case against the accused before a district judge. These sensible ideas were not implemented, particularly the ruling of severe punishment in case of false accusation, due to political expediency with the result that today, blasphemy has become a blunt tool in the hands of forces to carry out mayhem.

If dastardly acts such as the one that took the life of an innocent Sri Lankan have to be avoided and Pakistan’s international image has to be salvaged, then the Pakistani state has to rethink its approach towards religious extremism and violence.

The writer is a political scientist and defense analyst.