Today’s massacre of at least 20 Shia Muslimss in Gilgit brings the tally of murdered and injured Shias close to 250 since the beginning of 2012 and aside from two dedicated articles, both in the Daily Times, and both by two honourable Pashtuns, Pakistan’s “progressive”, “liberal” and “secular” media remains defeaningly silent on this topic. While Pakistan’s social media networks have been abuzz with Oscar awards, cricket matches, Maya Khan and Veena Malik, aside from the token tweet and sentence, Pakistan’s liberal media continues to ignore the ongoing Shia Genocide in Pakistan.
The PPP-led government remains both clueless and helpless to stop this ongoing genocide – while some of its elected representatives have spoken out against this but the world knows that it is not the elected Government in Pakistan that has enabled Shia Genocide – it is the military establishment. The ISI’s partnership with the nexus of interconnected extremist Deobandi-Salafi groups (TTP, Jundullah, SSP-ASWJ-LeJ, JM, LeT) responsible for this has been formalized via Difa-e-Pakistan Counci (DPC). Furthermore, alternate political groups like Imran Khan’s PTI are also complicit as evidenced by their open support for DPC.
The right-wing in the Urdu vernacular press has no qualms in sympathizing with the Jihadists responsible for such acts. However, their (mostly) pseudo-liberal counterparts in the English language segment of the media is even worse. The latter claim to be liberal and progressive – however, after the third major Shia massacre in 2012 (Khanpur 34 killed, Parachinar 49 killed, Gilgit 20 killed), aside from the two examples mentioned, they have either remained silent, uttered the token condemnation or grossly misrepresented the issue as a routine Sunni vs Shia violence.
LUBP has provided a detailed has provided detailed casualty figures for Shias in January 2012;
http://criticalppp.com/archives/70763
This data is also available at other Shia websites and facebook groups – in case our “liberal” media can take time off from self-congratulation and the England-Pakistan cricket series.
It has also provided detailed analysis on this topic. Refer to:
Intellectual dishonesty in misrepresenting Shia massacres in Pakistan
Yet Pakistan’s “liberal” media is more at ease in writing on safe issues or those that can further material advancement. The topic of Shia genocide is off limits because it exposes the role of Pakistan’s security establishment. This is where Pakistan’s “liberal” media has drawn its limits. It is excellent in token gestures, taking up “safe” causes that do not affect the interests of the military establishment. In furthering its financial interests through NGOs and heaping platitudes on each other, Pakistan’s “liberal” media is probably one of the best in the world. However, for the embattled Shia Muslims of Pakistan, they appear to be least bothered. When Pakistan’s liberal and progressive activists stay silent, misrepresent or provide brief, token protest on the Shia genocide taking place, it enables and encourages the Shia-killing Jihadists.
We can only hope that Pakistan’s influential English media writers take up this issue and present it to the rest of the world.
This is what today’s tragic massacre of Shia muslims may have looked like. This is the graphic video of a similar massacre that took place in Mastung, Balochistan just a few months ago.
http://criticalppp.com/archives/73153
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