As the Zionist Israeli colonialist aggression against the Palestinians continues for the 90th day, the total bombing power equals three atomic Hiroshima bombs. Sounds unbelievable but is true.

Most of us forget the terrible atrocities committed against the people of Lahore over the ages. But to understand the depth of these crimes, we must understand that those involved have a track record of killings that is unbelievable. So, in this column we will mention the killings of others and then describe our own.

Take, for example, the United States of America. The population of this country comprises European, mostly British in origin, of immigrants to North America. Over the last 300 years these Europeans, who call themselves Americans, have slaughtered over 100 million Original Inhabitants described in racial terms as ‘Red Indians’. All their lands have been taken over. Today the leftover Original Americans are imprisoned in many concentration camps, described as ‘Reservations’.

They economically progressed by using African slaves picked up by British shippers. The new white Americans over the last 250 years have murdered over 65 million Africans. Even today they are considered as slaves. Last week the ‘Senators’ of the USA forced out a brilliant Vice Chancellor of Harvard University just because she was of African origin.

Take the British. For over 200 years they ruled India where they murdered 76 million Indians. In Lahore alone in 1857, their police went from house to house in the old walled city of Lahore and after 90 days of what they called ‘very hard work’, they pulled out 9,650 (according to East India Company records) persons and every day at the average rate of 118 a day, and blew them up on cannons parked outside Lohari Gate, Delhi Gate, Taxali Gate, Mochi Gate, the Lahore Fort entrance and outside Old Anarkali and outside the Civil Secretariat.

This exercise in extreme brutality silenced the population. People stopped discussion, and any expression of unhappiness by anyone met the same fate. A strange silence existed in the city known for its ability to discuss issues in a peaceful manner.

This situation was followed by a revolt among soldiers in the Cantonment’s Saddar Bazaar. They revolted by killing a British officer and a priest. Then a massacre followed the sort of which was unknown. A total of 26,785 soldiers and civilians were murdered, even those who tried to escape the river at Mahmood Booti area. For those who know the area they will know that even today farmers find bones in the fields when they plough.

These days the ruthless Zionists have invaded a land that for thousands of years have had Palestinians living there. The Israelis are all invariably of the Jewish faith but all European in origin having the same old habits. Even in racial terms they do not belong to the land. Their constructed story of ancient origin is bogus and has nothing to do with the land, let alone Palestine.

So just why does all this massacre take place. The reason is simple. The powerful nations of America and Europe are after the raw materials that belong to the soil of the Middle East, of Africa and Asia. In Palestine there is oil and gas and rare minerals, most of them to do with computer chips. Their long-term object is to enslave Africa again.

The recent Berlin conference on Africa did not invite any Africans, for they were deciding how to divide the continent again.

You might think that just how can these newly independent countries be enslaved again. The answer is simple. They operate through ‘mentally enslaved’ armed forces. A few of these people are well-endowed and settled in a different land to economically be considered super-rich. But then where they cannot find such persons, they are bombed out of existence.

We see around us a few countries that are termed ‘terrorists’. What that means is that these countries, and their people, are opposed to these ruthless exploiters. The Zionists feel that they must expand more to consolidate for still further economic expansion. Imperialism and colonialism is very alive, but under a new garb, a garb that is ruthless and shameless.

In this regard one of the measures is to claim that these countries are not democratic. But in practice they undermine every democratic notion, like using the judiciary and the organs that feed them with multiple criminal case, in a few cases running into hundreds. People ‘disappear’ for being a threat to some vague notion of patriotism. Those wishing to express their electoral right are prevented and papers rejected or snatched away.

This is Zionism and colonialism in a different shade, ruthless that it is. Today we see that the people of Lahore are disappointed at the way things have moved. Most people think that what is happening is not what Lahore, or Pakistan is all about. After the events of 1857 it took the British about 60 years to strike again in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The idea was to supress the people of the Punjab.

In my youth I remember walking with my father through Nila Gumbad just off Anarkali Bazaar, and he informed that at this place barbed wires were installed, and the people of the city being forced to crawl towards the bazaar. They claimed that the ‘locals’ had been rude to English ladies. Much later I was able to come across photographs of this shameful behaviour.

The purpose of this column is to bring forth the truth, and to try to make people to understand that they must study history in all its aspects, certainly not the communally bent versions that are part of school and even college curriculum. To learn the ‘real truth’ is critical if we as a people are to look through the bizarre events that we face today.

The murders of 1857, of April 1919, of the unmentioned Punjabi soldiers killed in WW1 and WW2 – collectively over two million – not to forget the thousands of patriots who have ‘disappeared’. The three atomic bombs equivalent thrown over 90 days in Gaza, must all never be forgotten. We must also not forget and forgive those among us who make our people worry about our future.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2024