Animal abuse, in the name of protest
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Donkeys, dogs, tigers, lions - and now wild boars - are the unfortunate targets of often extreme abuse in Pakistan's rallies and protests.
The Nation reported recently that a wild boar was beaten to death by protesters in Islamabad. The protesters also scrawled “Go Nawaz Go” on the boar and tied its limbs with cables before thrashing it to death with sticks.
Sadly, this is not the first time an animal has been tortured or killed during a protest, and the practice of bringing helpless creatures out to large public gatherings - a form of torture for many wild animals in itself - continues with next to no criticism.
Before the May 2013 general elections, a white tiger being used by the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) during one of its rallies died, reportedly due to soaring temperatures which the animal wasn't used to living in.
'Gadha', the urdu word for donkey, is considered a form of abuse, which is the reason why many protests feature donkeys as a reference to rival political figures or other targets. The creatures are often beaten, spray painted and led through crowds for long hours.
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| Pakistani cricket fans pose with a donkey as they shout slogans against national cricket team players involved in a match fixing. – Photo AFP |
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| Protesters have donkeys pull a vehicle during a rally against hikes oil prices. – Photo AP |
The PML-N is notorious for bringing tigers and lions - the party's election symbol - out to its rallies.
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| Supporters of Nawaz Sharif hold a rally with a lion. – Photo AP |
Pakistanis still protest against the US and Israel by either burning flags or tying them to donkeys, who are then beaten.
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| Protesters tie US and Israeli flags on donkeys during a protest in Faisalabad. – Photo Online |
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| Lawyer places a photograph of Obama on a donkey against a possible US attack on Syria. – Photo AFP |
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| Protesters tie a US flag over a donkey's back before a demonstration against Israel in Karachi – Photo AFP |
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| Protesting against Israel and the US – Photo AFP |
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On DawnNews
Comments (100) Closed
Sep 19, 2014 05:24pm
u can judge a country by how u treat and respect ur animals
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Sep 19, 2014 05:42pm
Pakistan need more education ???
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Sep 19, 2014 05:43pm
Humans are a curse for all living and non-living things between earth and sky and everything else
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Sep 19, 2014 05:44pm
people have become animals and dont even think twice to kill other human being. how can one expect that they will treat animals fairly
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Sep 19, 2014 05:50pm
why beat a help less animal for your frustrations?? where is this country going??
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Sep 19, 2014 05:54pm
Shame on the leaders who accept this, and same on us for doing this.
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Sep 19, 2014 05:56pm
at least a boar has more dignity than our PM.
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Sep 19, 2014 05:58pm
Only animals beyond animals can do that.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:01pm
simply abhorrent !!. The god up there sees everything.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:03pm
alas nowadays humans act more savage than animals.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:03pm
Shame on these protesters. This is cruelty and we must stop using animals as tools. We need to know how protests are arranged.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:05pm
Animals are we. These tongueless creatures are far more productive given their abilities than we human beings.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:07pm
God does unto you what you do to poor animals...
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Sep 19, 2014 06:09pm
We have lost all morals. A society is judged by its treatment to women, children and animals and so far non of them exist in our country.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:10pm
like people like leaders. what does one expects.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:11pm
A inhumane merciless act, poor animals at the mercy of Pakistanis.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:13pm
People involved in this incident should be punished according to law..
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Sep 19, 2014 06:19pm
"jahalat" at its peak..!!
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Sep 19, 2014 06:23pm
@pratham that is anew one??? Countries don't treat as animals its the human beings who do.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:23pm
Thats a lot of meat to digest.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:24pm
Oh my god !.. What an inhumane society it is.. :( See the wild boar and pain & helplessness in its eyes.. *sob sob* RIP now.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:26pm
Just curious! where can one find the Israeli flag in Pakistan?
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Sep 19, 2014 06:26pm
@pratham yes we make them sit in the parliament!
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Sep 19, 2014 06:29pm
@pratham bit harsh to judge a country of more than 180 million with just couple of lunatics who are prepared to get noticed on whatever they can.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:32pm
Their brain is not much developed than animals !!
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Sep 19, 2014 06:34pm
@Hemanth God is inside all of us and so is the devil. Seems the latter is winning.
These actions are done by people who believe that OTHERS not us are cause (& cure) of all issues that affects them. Am really surprised how a nation has be hypnotized with that thinking.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:39pm
@ConcernedPakistani
Very right, only animals beyond animals can do this.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:41pm
How shameful!
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Sep 19, 2014 06:46pm
STOP Abusing innocent animals, they are living breathing creatures that GOD has created for a purpose, if you don't like them then put them in Zoo OR export back to Africa.
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Sep 19, 2014 06:48pm
Shameful. What an intolerant and brutal society we are conceiving! Is sanity and sobriety alien to us?
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Sep 19, 2014 06:50pm
Hope everyone involved in this shameful act gets beaten to death in the same way.
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Sep 19, 2014 07:04pm
@pratham , Mahatma Gandhi said that. So true though. Same way the food one eats, words one utters and thoughts one has make a man and it reflects in his character.
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Sep 19, 2014 07:11pm
for information of the viewers, wild boars have long been a problem in Islamabad, especially in the Red zone. The government has it self in the past launched an operation with help of CDA to clean the red zone of wild boars.
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Sep 19, 2014 07:11pm
All the commentator of this news, please all of you watch the following website and see how the animals love their caretakers
Vitality 101 - Hug of the century
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Sep 19, 2014 07:11pm
These same people are expecting to go to Jannat!!!!
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Sep 19, 2014 07:14pm
People committing such a great injustice in the name of demanding justice! We should fear Allah (swt) because even though torturing an animal in such a cruel fashion is small for us, it may be a very significant crime to Allah (swt). How would we feel toward someone who tortures or kills a pet animal of ours? Allah (swt) Loves all of His creation and He should be feared.
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Sep 19, 2014 07:15pm
What kind of people are these? What's the point of this behavior towards God's creation? God did not create man and give him permission to do this.
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Sep 19, 2014 07:16pm
Humans are treated like animals and you expect the nation to treat animals humanely. There is a reason why not a single politician wants education to be mandatory for all children!
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Sep 19, 2014 07:16pm
@pratham
Well it is disgraceful act. And I am sure that in India the animals are all treated kindly.
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Sep 19, 2014 07:37pm
We don't respect animals which ate god's creation. Infact, we torture, abuse and kill then just for fun. And then we question why we have so many hardships lately. It is because of or own doings. Have people no shame or fear of god before they do such a thing to his creation? It gives me the shivers.
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Sep 19, 2014 07:39pm
@Sameer only in third wolrd like pakistan
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Sep 19, 2014 07:49pm
A civilisation is measured by how caring it is to sentient beings. We are the evil and perpetrators of evil by being cruel to helpless animals. We not only invade and deprive them of their habitat but use them by inflicting pain and a slow unnatural death just to please ourselves. How uncouth and barbaric can a society get?
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Sep 19, 2014 07:51pm
@ailly you are wrong both of them lack any sort of dignity.
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Sep 19, 2014 07:53pm
Disturbing, disgusting and shameful.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi
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Sep 19, 2014 07:55pm
Shame on entire nation and on those who organize these kind of protest. They can't be Muslim. There should be some laws and punishment for this kind of act. They are worse then terrorist.
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Sep 19, 2014 08:06pm
The society where scholars, doctors and scientists are being tagged impure and killed brutally on the roads everyday, how-come a wild boar gets free in the land of "PURE"
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Sep 19, 2014 08:06pm
Disgusting behavior. Seriously, what is wrong with these people? In these cases, I genuinely hope that what goes comes around. Respect your fellow creatures, animals and humans.
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Sep 19, 2014 08:12pm
What will become of us when on the Day of Judgment ALLAH brings these animals to life and commands them to take revenge on us for what we have done???
It's shameful enough in this world...how will we bear the shame in front of all of humanity?
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Sep 19, 2014 08:19pm
This is terrible - like so many other terrible things in this country
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Sep 19, 2014 08:29pm
this is the sadest but a harsh reality of poor animals in a country where life has no value !!
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Sep 19, 2014 08:41pm
Few Simple words! I am ashamed to be called Pakistani. Country is for people like Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Zardaris along with their slaves (masses)
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Sep 19, 2014 08:51pm
I can understand identifying your enemies with animals and implicitly tying them to pejoratives. What I can NOT understand is beating or killing that poor animal. Where is the sense or humanity in that?
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Sep 19, 2014 08:52pm
Poor animal thinking.------------
Are we the Animals ? or They are the Animals ?
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Sep 19, 2014 08:58pm
The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated -Mahatma Gandhi
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Sep 19, 2014 08:58pm
This is brutal.
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Sep 19, 2014 09:05pm
Has anyone noticed how it's mostly men mistreating animals? Would women ever tie up a defenseless creature and beat it with shoes? Or parade around a tiger as a show of symbolic machismo?
I wonder if it has more to do with the phallocentric society that we live in. Rather than blame the politicians (again, mostly men) we could try and reevaluate what it means to be a man in this country. Does torture make you more of a man? Does cruelty prove you can be the alpha male? It does indeed in Pakistan.
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Sep 19, 2014 09:06pm
Pakistani People Will never change, what has this animal done? why are beating the poor thing.
im ashamed of being a Pakistani and i will regret this my whole life, Stupid country and this is not about education even the educated ones are a part of it so that doesn't matters.....
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Sep 19, 2014 09:07pm
@ailly Do you ever understand what the author/article is trying to say or you just see only what you want to see no matter what the article is all about? some of the responses are just mind boggling!
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Sep 19, 2014 09:17pm
seeing such senseless cruelty, just breaks my heart...
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Sep 19, 2014 09:18pm
People dont respect other humans, animals are not even in the running.
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Sep 19, 2014 09:18pm
gross. should the people, mistreated by those politicians with power, mistreat the even more powerless animals themselves? we should know better than that.
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Sep 19, 2014 09:21pm
@Sameer Please do not insult animals by call "these people" animals. Animals are more humane.
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Sep 19, 2014 09:23pm
it shows who the followers of these parties are.....
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Sep 19, 2014 09:30pm
So violent people in land of pure
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Sep 19, 2014 09:41pm
@pratham You must judge a country how they teat human beings and opponents...
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Sep 19, 2014 09:45pm
@one more test - so are you suggesting, is this the way to handle the situation?
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Sep 19, 2014 10:24pm
Don't say that people have become animals, it is an insult to animals. The country needs a massive educational campaign to teach them to respect nature in all of its form, whether it is killing of animals, birds, and even the trees. Without all of these beings humanity will get wiped out, nature maintains a fine balance between all creatures.
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Sep 19, 2014 10:28pm
And the leaders and organizers of the rally allow this? Maybe we need to beat them with sticks too!
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Sep 19, 2014 10:29pm
shameful, Allah will never forgive these people! absolutely shameful and criminals!!
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Sep 19, 2014 11:03pm
I am a die hard PTI troll and I strongly condemn that. Very upset
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Sep 19, 2014 11:19pm
Sahame on Mullah Qadri calling himself bigger than Lenin or Karl Marx. That's what have you have been teachng your followes to torture the animals. If anyone does this of kind of abuse to animals in Canada, he will be in jail by this time.
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Sep 19, 2014 11:23pm
@Kafka
You hit the nail on the head.
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Sep 19, 2014 11:26pm
@one more test
Shame on you for justifying the actions of the protesters.
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Sep 19, 2014 11:44pm
The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said, If someone kills a sparrow for sport, the sparrow will cry out on the Day of Judgment, "O Lord! That person killed me in vain! He did not kill me for any useful purpose."
(Nisai)
These goons must be ashamed for their heinous crime.
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Sep 19, 2014 11:59pm
@Wasmin Yes, we should better leave it to Allah to deal with such fiendish human beings. What simplistic solution!
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Sep 20, 2014 12:37am
You cannot expect a nation that doesn't know its own rights to respect the lives and rights of animals. In our country, where dozens if not hundreds die every day, any lives (animals or other) hold little value. Let's not pretend that we live in a developed country.
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Sep 20, 2014 01:03am
Why don't they go on hunger strike, a peaceful way to make their point, instead showing off their utter stupidity? Aren't animals the creations of the sama All Mighty who created us?
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Sep 20, 2014 01:10am
How come the great IK did not stop the brutal beating of the boar?
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Sep 20, 2014 01:11am
Atleast people have understood the rights of animal.....but when will they understand the right of humans.....Do not forget Kashmiris, Palestinians, Beharis in Bangladesh, Bosnian, Muslims in Burma
Great applause for all those humans who raised voice for animals.............
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Sep 20, 2014 03:04am
@pratham
You absolutely right.Pakistani (humans) also get the same or may be worse treatment from the rich & powerful of the country.
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Sep 20, 2014 03:06am
Btw, the people who are abusing donkeys, and thinking they are so intelligent by tying flags to donkeys, are the real donkeys themselves. I mean, look at them. What will become of this nation?
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Sep 20, 2014 03:54am
Commendable effort by DAWN to raise awareness of this cruel practice by Pakistani protesters. I only hope other newspapers, in regional languages too print similar stories so that people who dont speak English can also be reached. Thanks DAWN.
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Sep 20, 2014 04:05am
Where people are treated as a diposable rubbish bag by the ones with money or power, it is expected that animals will be treated inhumanely. However, i still feel sad to see these images as Pakistani, because i would like to believe we are compassionate people. As mentioned in other comments lack of education is a major cause of our current predicament.
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Sep 20, 2014 04:12am
@khan Because he is too full of himself to care for anyone.
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Sep 20, 2014 04:34am
Jahil qaum, this is enough to prove there will be no naya Pakistan, we are an uncivilized society and we have to fix that first.
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Sep 20, 2014 05:17am
That's some revolution. Maybe IK should educates his revolutionaries on How to behave as a Human 101 before brining them out on streets. Simply sickening.
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Sep 20, 2014 05:18am
if this is the way we treat animals, do we have any right to be called humans??
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Sep 20, 2014 05:26am
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" Mahatma Gandhi
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Sep 20, 2014 05:29am
@Fareed please do not stop your comments at Muslims it will be appreciated further if you include Hindu Sikh & Christians in Pakistan, Shias in Sunni areas, Christians in Syria.your response only justifies this cruelty on animals. This article is very meaningful and presents mindset of people perpetuating this cruelty. Other issues you have raised belong to another discussion
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Sep 20, 2014 05:52am
Signs of immaturity. They do not even know what they are doing.
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Sep 20, 2014 08:50am
People are very sensitive about animal abuse. Yes it is a very wrong and cruel thing. But how about giving a bit higher priority to human beings being killed in worse ways in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Hindustan.
People who prefer animals should keep on hugging their fluffy cats and live in gagaland.
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Sep 20, 2014 02:14pm
@Aslam Shaikh What about human beings, non-muslims and other minorities, being killed in Pakistan, when will your like speak up for them?
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Sep 20, 2014 04:29pm
@salman malik But where are the educated and aware people around to stop this non-sense..Tell me, are these people booked for cruelity against animals..??
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Sep 20, 2014 04:32pm
@Ikram Well said..I congratulate you for your awareness..From India
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Sep 20, 2014 04:56pm
Lawyers beating an innocent animal with a shoe to protest Obama. These are educated Pakistanis, highly educated as a matter of fact.
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Sep 21, 2014 12:32am
You look at things like this, and you realize what a huge failure of a nation Pakistan really is.
Will we ever see a Pakistan, which is not the laughing stock of the world?
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Sep 21, 2014 12:46am
Really horrible. What have these animals done to deserve this?
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Sep 21, 2014 02:00am
and then we complain why our prayers are not listened to.
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Sep 21, 2014 08:33pm
Btw, doesn't Pakistan have laws concerning animals and nature ? Those pictures of tigers and lions in election rallies are quite disturbing. Its quite disgusting. Humans, animal, nature all are creations of God, Allah. Something have terribly gone wrong in Pakistan. Otherwise, how can we explain lawyers killing donkeys in protest rallies ? Heartening thing is there's condemnation from everybody in this forum.
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Sep 22, 2014 12:14am
Thank you Dawn for bringing the plight of these poor animals to light. Bless you for this.
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