Once a farmer hung a dead crow hanging outside the field, when someone asked the reason, the farmer said, “One has to be hung to scare the others.” The tragic death of a Sri Lankan national in Sialkot has sent shockwaves through Pakistanis and the wounds of the ongoing atrocities against minorities in Pakistan have once again turned green.
A tragic aspect of the Sialkot tragedy was that the police, despite reaching the spot, failed to stop the killing of the manager. By the time the Sialkot police arrived at the scene, the mob was out of control, prompting more personnel to be called in, but by then Priyantha Kumara had been killed and his body was burnt.
This is not the first case of alleged blasphemy in Pakistan, there have been countless incidents before.
What happened to the Sri Lankan factory manager is neither the first nor the last because incidents of alleged blasphemy in Pakistan and such incidents damage the country’s international image, relations with other countries.
The FATF and the General Assembly and the Security Council have raised serious questions about such incidents. Pakistan has good relations with very few countries in the world, of which Sri Lanka is one. Later, bilateral relations may also be affected.
Christian, Hindu, Sikh, and other leaders belonging to minority religions in Pakistan have also strongly condemned the tragedy and demanded that such incidents be stopped. Pakistani law does not give any citizen the right to punish anyone. The government should punish the perpetrators of the tragedy as severely as possible so that the fear among the minorities can be removed and the path of those who target innocent people under the guise of religion can be blocked.
In a village of France in the 16th century, it was rumored that a couple had damaged a sacred statue in the church. The couple had stayed in the village to spend the night. A mob gathered and killed the couple and burnt the bodies of the two unfortunates. At that time, Walter and Rousseau raised their voices against it. Then history witnessed the French Revolution and the elites, kings and the religious clergies of the church were beheaded.
Somewhere in sixteenth-century France, it was rumored that a couple had damaged a sacred statue in a church. The couple stayed in the village to spend the night. A mob gathered and they violently killed the couple and burned the bodies of the two unfortunates. Voltaire and Rousseau raised their voices against it. The French Revolution came and the aristocracy and the king and the religious leaders of the church were penned in the square.
The time has come for those responsible for the Sialkot tragedy to be made role models, because just as it is necessary to hang a marker on a crow to save a field, so too the enemies of humanity need to send such believers to paradise to make the earth habitable for human beings.
