Peshawar: Baptised in blood

Those who rule us should hang their heads in collective shame, when suicide bombers can enter a church in Peshawar and kill over 70 worshippers. The number is sure to rise as many of the 120 injured are in critical condition. If any of us professes shock that such an attack could take place here, that humanity could sink so low, their surprise will ring hollow. Even though no group has claimed responsibility for the attack as these lines are written, the answer to that question doesn’t really matter. All of us can guess; it is the same forces that have struck before – in many places, and in many ways. We have become a country where identity – be it religion, ethnicity or gender – can be the difference between being allowed to live and having a permanent death sentence hanging over you. Christians are massacred while they pray, Shias are hauled out of buses and killed over belief and women are murdered, raped and humiliated because of traditional notions of ‘honour’. The Christians – as patriotic and as Pakistani as any of us – have hardly ever been involved in controversies and have generally chosen to keep a relatively low profile, speaking out only peacefully about the ceaseless social, economic and religious discrimination in their face. Have they been targeted because of their association with the ‘west’ and the notion that they have links with the Christians in the US and other nations? Who can assume that the madness that drives some to mow down human beings like that is immune to this brand of hatred? The perfunctory words of condemnation that were issued by the politicians after the church attack are no longer enough. Sending a few government officials to the site of the attack – as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did by sending Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and as the PTI leadership did, taking time out from meetings in the luxurious environs of Islamabad – will not suffice. Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of the ANP was forced to leave the spot due to the rage of mourners as he reached the church to condole with families. PTI chief Imran Khan has commented on how such attacks seem to take place just when peace talks are approaching and then lashed out at his political opponents, rather than those who committed this monstrosity. This is egregious behaviour. The absolute last thing we need right now is the usual bout of conspiracy theories – a result of flights of foolish fancy based on notions that ‘outside’ forces did it. It is no time for ignorance and irresponsibility. This country has borne too much pain for business to continue as usual. It is time to level with the citizenry. We can’t simply be told that talks will be the held with the militants and then everything will miraculously resolve itself. It must be explained, in great detail, exactly what is being done to check the triumphant march of hatred and madness. What concessions are on the table? If there is to be any red line, what is it? Right now, what should the victims, their families and people at large expect? That such attacks will continue with impunity without any consequences for those who perpetrate them? Members of the Christian community who blocked roads with the bodies of their loved ones should be joined by the rest of Pakistan. This should be no occasion to wonder just how many non-Christians – the members of Pakistan’s Muslim majority – mourn with them. This was an attack on everyone who doesn’t subscribe to obscurantist agendas. We have remained silent for far too long and silence now will have blood on its hands.