My thoughts on the Qasba Aligarh Massacre - FP Article by Chishti Sahib

Chishti Sahib,

Thank you for remembering the unfortunate and poor victims of this horrible massacre that took place almost 23 years ago. Your account of the events is accurate. Your descriptions of how cruelly Islamic slogans, like "Allaho Akbar," and labeling of victims as "infidels," were used to justify the slaughter are the very tactics being used against other victims by similar butchers in NWFP and elsewhere. What goes around comes around.

I was particularly dismayed by the tragic, but true, depiction of what happened:

"On December 15, 1986, a group of armed mostly Afghans with the backing of a Nationalist Political Party attacked the Aligarh, Orangi and Qasba colonies and adjacent areas of Karachi and killed innocent people, burnt shops and house] A total of 400 Mohajirs were killed in just two hours of this horrible massacre.

“They came inside our houses and asked for men”, “they killed indiscriminately with knives and guns chanting Allah’o’Akber as if we were infidels” said one of the survivors who lost her father and elder brother sobbing and she was correct. Astonishingly mosques were used to mobilize people to kill and there were speeches and sermons given against the people living in Qasba Aligarh by pseudo Mullah’s that day branding Mohajirs as “Infidels” and that “killing them would take one to heaven”.

Mohammad Ibrahim another survivor who lost his elder brother told us that “they came in and started burning our houses, kicking the babies, raping our women and killing anyone in front of them …”

More than 400 Mohajir Men and Women were brutally mutilated at Qasba Aligarh that day and nothing happened,.."

Chishti Sahib, I agree with you that the total disregard for human life, or the importance of justice, demonstrated by the dictatorial regime then, and by the subsequent so-called "democratic" governments since, is the reason for Pakistan's impending destruction. Is it any wonder that the Pakhtoons, who killed Mohajirs in 1986, are now killing others including other Pakhtoons, Shias, Punjabis, Pak soldiers, police, and sometimes themselves? When there is no fear of justice, retribution, and judgment, then criminal elements will hold sway, including the criminals in uniform.

Having said all this, I agree with Madani Sahib, that we should recognize the evil that was allowed to take place, put mechanisms in place that preclude such man-made disasters from occurring again, and prosecute the perpetrators in an open, unbiased, public, and righteous manner.

A nation that turns its military loose on its own citizens to loot, murder, rape, and slaughter is not going to be strong. A nation that prevents its own citizens from returning home after displaying unmatched loyalty does not deserve sovereignty. A nation that allows and promotes the discrimination and slaughter of its own citizens based on linguistic, provincial, sectarian, ethnic, or linguistic hatred is not going to survive. Good article, but let's start anew - for the sake of Pakistan, its people, and its future.

Thanks.

Salim Ahmed Chauhan