By Jibran Nasir,

Today marks the best of days and today marks the worst of days. May 28 or as a true patriot would call it “Youm-e-Takbeer” marks the day when Pakistan registered its might in modern warfare and arsenal by successfully conducting a controlled nuclear explosion…………………

It is also the one and only (and wrong) reason for proud patriotic Muslims to call the country the “Fortress of Islam”.

A Day of Mourning:

Where many beam with national and religious pride on May 28, to me at least it is a day or mourning and national embarrassment. Where so many of us recall hills and mountains moving in Chagai with the thunderous roar of a successful nuclear test, how many of us reflect on the massacre of members of the Ahmadiyya Community at Lahore?

The attack took place at the Community’s house of worship which I am not legally allowed to call a Mosque. 94 people were killed and more than 120 were injured during Friday prayers. The so called Fortress of Islam could not protect the people inside it. US did not need to put an embargo or send a drone nor did India need to conduct any covert operation or surgical strike. It was the work of home bred terrorists who continue to creep into our mosques, cultural centers and streets and are not limited to FATA anymore.

To those who want to continue to live in the bubble with their misplaced sense of nationalism believing that Pakistanis are gatekeepers of jannah and Pakistan is the cradle for the next holy army, remember May 28 for the successful nuclear blasts.But those concerned with struggling to return basic human values and rights to this society, remember May 28 as also the day we failed our people.

 

 

Various political parties had issued statements of condemnation when the attack took place but no prominent politician was seen at the mass funeral held at Rabwah for the victims. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan along with the Punjabi wing of Taliban (considered to have links with Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and SSP) accepted responsibility for the attack, the same group with which the current Nawaz government is gearing to negotiate with.

The Lahore massacre is perhaps just the tip of the iceberg. It defines the circumference if our society is conceived as a circle. The genocide of the Hazara community and the targeted killing of Shias in Karachi (three including two children were gunned down today) is a clear sign that this circle will keep getting smaller and smaller.

Our grudges and holier than thou attitude had dehumanised us to the extent that now we do not even condemn brutality or terrorism if our own kin has not suffered from it.

To those who want to continue to live in the bubble with their misplaced sense of nationalism believing that Pakistanis are gatekeepers of jannah and Pakistan is the cradle for the next holy army, remember May 28 for the successful nuclear blasts.

But those concerned with struggling to return basic human values and rights to this society, remember May 28 as also the day we failed our people.

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