In the land of ire

Published March 20, 2015
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

THE chain of events beginning with last Sunday’s attacks on two churches in Lahore has left the people divided, confused and angry at each other, instead of the bombers being the target of their protest. The attention has been taken off the militants who bombed the churches about half a kilometre apart. For now, the concern is centred on the need for avoiding friction between religious ‘communities’.

It is not the time for giving too much space to the heroes who stood guard over the church, sacrificing their own lives to save many others. In their place is available the stereotype of the Pakistani mob member, ever ready to provide on-the-spot justice.

There have been comments in the media lamely asking as to which was the bigger incident: the bomb attack or the lynching of the two ‘suspects’ following the explosion — a bonus that the attackers might not have been vying for when they arrived to carry out their mission.


Following the attack on two churches and the lynching of two ‘suspects’, various theories were extensively discussed in Lahore.


Amid all these complaints, about wrong focus and undue stress, about the lack of an efficient system ultimately, the city is still tense. Official remedial efforts are on. In Thursday’s newspaper there is a picture geared towards establishing peace, gradually and as quietly as possible.

The photo shows the hosts, the chief minister and his constant shadow, former home minister Rana Sanaullah, posing for the camera. They are holding hands with members of the Christian community, in declaration of a resolve to stand united. The accompanying statement commits the leaders to coexistence under the banner of Pakistan, and has them condemning the blasts and the subsequent lynching.

The image is meant to reassure, as goes the routine exercise in stock-taking in the aftermath of an event threatening interfaith ‘harmony’. Yet it is revealing, for all that has been missing from the scene in Youhanabad and its surroundings.

The political leadership has been badly absent. There have been talks between the Punjab government and leaders of the ‘Christian biradari’, but by all signs, this is a religious biradari represented not by any political groups or activists but by men associated with the church.

The government on its side remains as committed to an administrative solution as ever. Youhanabad is part of a constituency Shahbaz Sharif had contested in the last general election and his famed metro bus which runs through the area was promptly attacked and brought to a halt by protesters after the blast. But while these may be serious reasons in less unusual periods for the chief minister to dash to the spot, in recent times, he does not appear too keen on making these quick, reassuring trips to the scene of the crime.

It is little surprise that the PML-N is also not to be found engaged in any exercise in damage-control. This is not its style, nor, for that matter, the preferred mode for many others. If an effort is on, whoever is making it has to keep it as low-key as possible. And of course criticism of the government action to restore normality to the area has to be measured given the sensitivity of it all. In such a situation, it is no surprise that the more vocal statements about the complications faced in the restoration effort emerges in the form of whispers and sighs from the first line of law enforcers, the police.

In the days following the attack and lynching, various theories were extensively discussed in Lahore. Two of them stood out for their logic. The first related to the lynching immediately after the bomb explosions.

There were many versions about what might have happened in the run-up to the gory setting on fire the two ‘bodies’ — the presumption being that all life had already been squeezed out of the ‘suspects’ before the mad chants reached a frenzied pitch and a fire was ignited. One detail corroborated by many sources was that the police on the spot had at one point seized the bodies from the angry protesters, only to lose them again to the rampaging mob.

The explanation — which is said to have found some acceptance in the police force — says the setting of suspects on fire had been necessitated by a desire to destroy evidence. Also, that the elite force relented to the charge of the mob has been promptly put down to the low morale in the department.

The ‘exploitation’ of the police by the political leadership in the Model Town incident last year provides the standard background and justification for the lack of initiative on the part of the police in Youhanabad after the blasts and lynching.

The theory says the enraged group had taken out their ire on the two men who they suspected of complicity in the bomb blasts. The pause after the beating allowed the personnel of the elite police force to take the bodies into their custody. The second targeting of the same suspects, who in all probability were dead by now, might have been less spontaneous and less hot-blooded than the first one.

This was something which might have required some consideration, and this is why the second theory offered, courtesy conversations with police officials, is so confusing. It speaks of the protesters as a leaderless bunch of angry, predominantly young, men striking out of nowhere to secure and guard their space in Pakistan, and who seemingly could only be pacified through intervention of holy men from their order.

Presumably, these representatives drawn from the church in turn rely on individuals with greater access to the people of the ‘community’. But still the big question is: why can’t there be some political groups or parties involved in the search for a solution here, and for continued interaction among various groups?

As always, the answer is that for the time being, we must all concentrate on defusing the situation at hand and delay our endeavours, however noble, for greater political participation for later, better times. These are, as always, extraordinary circumstances.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2015

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