A Situation in Flux - My Response to Nadeem Gehla's "Between Blood, Revenge and the Legacy of Martyrs"

Here is where Mr Gehla's article is, on the contemplation of the idea of revenge. Here is Mr Ejaz Haider, on the contemplation of revenge itself. Below is the response I posted to it:

Personally, my heart was rent by the murder of Shahbaz Bhatti sahab. I had varied responses to that incident of violence. What I want to mention is that somebody made the recommendation that the time may have come for the government to go beyond mere legalities and start going for extra-judicial assassinations as a way to end the religious extremists attacks. My response was agreement and I wrote:

The PPP will have to have a long, hard sit down talk with the PML-N and the ISI about their sectarian friends in Punjab.

Then the PPP will have to wear its Naseerullah Babar pants and get ready to break skulls and, and catch cuts.

Now I have no doubt in my mind that the PPP has three armies of brave Jiyalas ready to fight for their democracy and their country. And reading this article by Ahmed Nadeem Gehla reminds me that these brave men and women are ready at the signal from their party to fight. This is a sentiment that dovetails completely with what I myself have written. However, Mr Gehla’s fear of an escalation and “intervention” by the establishment, keeping in mind what happened during the PNA movement are also valid. Keeping this in mind, I would like to request the party that it at least raise the verbal pressure on centre right, to right wing forces to suspend aid for sectarian terrorists.

If the PPP takes the decision to go through with extra-judicial measures against sectarian terrorists, I assure you the blog “These Long Wars” will support you.

In the meantime, I would like to add that your policy of non-intervention may or not bear fruit. Here is the Dawn article, “Too Little, Too Late” on the ever chameleon like Fazl-ur-Rehman expressing some regret on the current state of the Blasphemy Laws. The words from him and Dawn are:

“if a law is being misused against minorities, we are ready to discuss this [matter]”. Such is the grimness of the situation Pakistan is facing vis-à-vis extremism that even this small concession must be greeted with relief.

I wonder what this bodes in terms of Mr Gehla’s idea of non street confrontation over the blasphemy laws? This is a very serious situation, and the words of Mr Fazl-ur-Rehman have to be taken somewhat seriously in this respect.