Pakistan: Will we de-radicalise?

The bloodthirsty Mumtaz Qadri appears to be on a lifelong mission to turn the country into a nation of pious murderers. An inquiry report has revealed shocking facts regarding the shooting in Adiala Jail earlier this month that left one blasphemy accused dead and another wounded. The prison guard who shot the blasphemy accused Muhammad Asghar, a mentally ill 70-year-old Briton, it turns out got his spiritual training from the murderer of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer. The guard had spent two weeks deployed on duty to watch over Mumtaz Qadri in confinement, during which the latter corrupted his mind with his extremist indoctrination and incited him to kill Muhammad Asghar. The report also suggests that Qadri enjoys a venerable status within the prison in the eyes of the staff and other inmates. Moreover, he had two other guards lined up for carrying out similar assassinations. How much our security forces have been radicalised should be evident by now as almost every violent incursion into military bases and institutions involves radicalised insiders. The situation is alarming when a cowardly cold-blooded murderer who shot the very person in the back he was supposed to be guarding enjoys immunity and privileges even while he is in prison. The fact that the guard he influenced managed to smuggle weapons into the prison speaks volumes of our prison security regime.

The problem is bigger than it seems at first glance. It is not only about the facilities Qadri has been given during imprisonment. One should not forget that the lawyers community and other rightists garlanded and showered this person with flowers after he committed the murder. It is the fanatical mindset that has permeated into wide sections of our society. Ironically, our judiciary, considered to have attained independence after its restoration in 2009, has failed to provide justice by sitting on Qadri’s appeal against his death sentence. Such an atmosphere is obviously going to persist unless the state comes up with a powerful counter-narrative that will not only serve to reverse the increasing radicalism, which has even infected parts of our security forces, but will challenge the credibility of this existing zealot ideology. Right now, whoever speaks against the charade of justice present in our judicial system in blasphemy cases is threatened with death. First Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatii and then a lawyer, all of them spoke against the abuse of the blasphemy law and all of them got assassinated. Here is the corollary: those who stand with the fanatical extremism will get a safe haven and treatment like Qadri while those who try to challenge it will meet the fate of Taseer and Bhatti.