by NAZISH BROHI
This is not the first killing on the blasphemy law. It is not even the first time those in office to protect people kill those who they protect. In KP a few years ago, a policeman killed a blasphemy accused who he was guarding. When the police tried to protect a blasphemy accused in another case, the police station was burnt down, after which the police apologised for attempting to provide protection. And when accepted political leaders publicly proclaim rewards for whoever kills a blasphemy accused, in this case against Aasia Bibi by a Jamaat-e-Islami leader appealing to the TTP to do religion a ‘real service’, this sets the stage.
Minority leader Father John Joseph shot himself dead to protest the blasphemy law. Hundreds others have spoken against this colonial-era legislation, strengthened by the blackest military dictatorship of Ziaul Haq, and now packaged as an ordained sacred law. Rudimentary trend analysis shows that the law is increasingly invoked against Muslims, and the parameters of who qualifies as a Muslim are growing more and more stringent and restrictive. A shoemaker in Lahore was accused of embroidering slippers in a design that looked like Islamic calligraphy. In Peshawar, a man was accused of blasphemy for forcing his neighbours to reduce the volume of a CD of religious recitation. In Gojra, nine Chirstians were burnt alive, according to the HRCP fact-finding report, in a planned and premeditated act. The same charges have been brought against towering national personalities such as Akhtar Hameed Khan. Those who speak openly against the law have also been threatened, including Sherry Rehman and Asma Jehangir.
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(Thanks to Harsh Kapoor of South Asia Citizens Web