The attack on Christians in Pakistan

In my previous post on 6/24/2005 I have written about prevailing intolerance in Pakistan against people from other faiths. The government of Pakistan is completely responsible for the breakdown of Pakistani society. So I decided to give an account of some of my experiences from my visit to Pakistan in 2002. On August 5, 2002 an attack on the Murree, Pakistan Christian School killed six people. The government was not able to nab anyone.

Just few days before the attack my wife and I were sitting in the waiting room of Islamabad’s well known dentist Rahman and Rahman. An American missionary woman, dressed in Pakistani ensemble, was also there. As she chatted with my wife it turned out that she had been working at the Muree Christian School. She had been in Pakistan for long and knew Urdu as well. I knew the school for long as my mother also studied in a Missionary School in Sialkot in pre independence Pakistan and went to Muree for a girl scouting trip and she used to tell us stories of her wonderful days. My mother and her younger brother were the lucky ones to study up to tenth grade because of a scholarship from such schools while all the elder brothers and sisters did not make it to even grade five. I am narrating my mother’s story to explain that these schools although missionary in nature are helping poor to get education. The woman (I forgot her name) had a local (Muree) newspaper in Urdu language in her hand. I had a brief glimpse on the headlines. The main headline was that the school had received threatening letters and those letters were claimed to be by some organization I guess in Lahore. I wanted to borrow the newspaper from her to read the news and have some discussion on the matter. However, at that very moment I was called in by the doctor for my turn. When I came out the woman with newspaper was gone.

Just a few days later I was shocked to hear the news of attack on that Muree School. I was wondering that even when the threats were already known and published in news paper why the government failed to provide any protection to the school and its residents. I have been to Muree and those who have been there know that the Army house is in a striking distance and still the attackers managed to flee. I could not shed the image of newspaper headline from my mind. The only explanation that fit very well is that the attack might have been supported by some government agency to legitimate its rule and grab the claim that there is a need to spread so called enlightened moderation. There are many other incidents of corruption, inefficiency, intolerance and exploitation that I witnessed during my visit to Pakistan in 2002 that are disturbing my mind. I will keep posting them here.

I may take a break from postings for sometime as I must defend my PhD by the end of July or Early August. I will be back soon.