N. P. Upadhyaya

Kathmandu: Unbelievable but yet true.

A heartless incident has taken place in Pakistan, Friday December 3, 2021 to the utter dismay of the entire world population.

Friendly country Pakistan too has presumably “graduated” itself from a peace loving country to a nation that believes now in lynching and that too on religious grounds.

More or less Pakistan too appears to have taken a path which India has been unfailingly following since the advent of a Hindu Fundamentalist Prime Minister Modi in 2014.

PM Modi has Gujrat infamy, a distinct dishonour.

In addition, PM Modi is a declared Islamophobic as several instances in the recent past have testified his “deep rooted” hatred against Muslims living either in his own country or abroad.

Muslims are in minority in India.

The brutal and ghastly manner in which a Buddhist Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana (in his 40s) and had been working as general manager of a garment factory in Sialkot district, reportedly some 100 km from Lahore, speaks that Pakistan too is not that far from India’s hatred of the minority Muslims.

The Sri Lankan was killed reportedly on blasphemy allegations.

This also speaks of the Pakistanis’ excessive sensitivities as regards the religion they profess.

A helpless Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan reacted to the hair-raising callous incident stating, ” The horrific vigilante attack on factory in Sialkot and the [killing] of [a] Sri Lankan manager is a day of shame for Pakistan. I am overseeing the investigations and let there be no mistake all those responsible will be punished with full severity of the law. Arrests are in progress,” he tweeted immediately after the killing of the Island citizen.”

In yet another Tweet, Imran Khan says, ” the grief and anger of the people of Pakistan on Sahiwal incident is understandable and justified. I assure the nation that when I return from Qatar, not only will the guilty be given exemplary punishment but I will review the entire structure of the Punjab police and start process of reforming it”.
Now the logical question is therefore:

Why should Imran Khan wait until his return from Qatar to penalize the culprits?

What makes Prime Minister Imran Khan from giving strict orders and instructions to the Punjab police prior to his flying to Qatar?

But in all honesty, PM Khan admits that Punjab Police needs “review” the entire structure?

This does mean that the Punjab Police has not been doing its job to the satisfaction of the country’s chief of the executive PM Khan?

If the Prime Minister is not happy with his own Police department then rest could be concluded easily.

Moreover, with what morale the Pakistanis will henceforth have to make sharp comments on Islamophobic India?

And what impact will this most horrifying event have upon Sri Lankan-Pakistan friendly ties?

Sri Lanka and Pakistan strong ties were tested at time when President Mahinda Rajpaksha wiped the Liberation Tiger terror (LTTE) menace from Sri Lanka in the year 2009.

Media agencies claim that “Mr Priyantha Kumara allegedly tore a poster of the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in which Quranic verses were inscribed and threw it in the dustbin”.

Poor Priyantha KUmara Diyawadana, understandably in some way forgot to honor the religion of the host country.

Let’s be honest that the deceased soul too took the worst courage to defame the religion of a country which was his home away from home.

The poster of the Islamist party, add media agencies, was pasted on the wall adjoining the office of the Sri Lankan citizen.

According to the Guardian dated December 3, 2021, Hussain Haqqani, a somewhat perverted scholar at Hudson Institute and a former “defected” Pakistani Ambassador to the US says, “The state machinery supports those who are perpetrating violence in the name of religion instead of protecting the victims”.

Presumed defector Haqqani’s outbursts against the government in Islamabad could be easily understood since he has decamped to the US and feels elated and satisfied as and when he gets a chance to sling mud on his own country of origin on some counts.

The issue of the slaughter of Sri Lankan national in Sialkot offers a great opportunity to this absconded scholar Haqqani to pounce upon the government in Islamabad.

In the meanwhile, a Sri Lankan government spokesperson has said that the country’s embassy in Islamabad was verifying details of the incident.

Moeed Pirzada, a Pakistani National Tweeted stating that ” And why Sri Lankan? Next time it will be the Chinese! Idiots open your eyes, Don’t nurture Frankenstein monsters in the name of religion, ulterior political motives and strategic confusions! Your petty monsters will become gigantic when hijacked by enemies! (Dawn.com).
Be that as it may, the killing of Priyantha Diyawadana in Pakistan will go a long way in the minds of the people of South Asia for a variety of politico-religious reasons.
In the meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, writes Sophia Saifi and Azaz Syed, for the CNN dated December 3, 2021, “condemns the incident and says “The savagery with which a Sialkot mob has tortured a Sri Lankan man to death on flimsy allegations of blasphemy should bring home the grim reality of spiraling radicalization in Pakistan.”

The Sialkot incident has in many more ways than one jolted the sensible and responsible Pakistanis after the incident. It has also damaged the image of Pakistan to some extent for sure.

We present some tweets below:

S. M Zafar Tweets, ” Sorry Priyantha Kumara! And family. We could not save your one and sorry Sri Lanka. WE couldn’t save your ward”.

Similarly, David Lit writes in his Tweets December 3, ” Pakistanis should remember that this incident sets a very bad precedent. Not only has this exposed the Extremism in our society but the fact a foreign national was killed will send chills down the spine of any foreign worker or investor in the country”.

Joins Wajahat Kazmi to the Tweets of David Lit and states, ” Black days in Pakistani history –horrifying and shameful incident in Sialkot, Pakistan.”

Likewise, Taimur Zamaan ventilates his sorry stating, ” Imagine if this incident had happened in India. By now your time lines have been flooded with the Tweets from officials’ accounts of Pakistan. But it is an incident with the minorities in your own country.

You wouldn’t find a single Tweet from officials. Shame on all.”

Back in Nepal, a very sensible, responsible and tolerant Muslim now stationed in Nepal Tweets, ” I can’t explain the pain that I am feeling. It is a shameful incident and all the culprits must be dealt with iron hands without any mercy. Justice must prevail”.

All threads put together, a sizeable section of the Pakistani national living inside the country or abroad appear to have been taken aback and emotionally moved listening and watching the videos that are circulating worldwide of the unbelievable killing of the Sri Lanka national- the one who professed Buddhism.

The entire Nepali population condemns the fanatic December 3 killing and prays Almighty to award eternal peace to the departed Sri Lankan soul.

Is it that the “tolerance” level in Pakistan has touched a new low? PM Khan must work hard.

If so the Pakistanis are advised to learn from Nepal on how tolerance is practiced in Nepal which is predominantly a Hindu country.

Remarkably, Nepali tolerance level is so high that the majority Hindu population that its Hindu King was unceremoniously overthrown by the India’s notorious RAW establishment and yet the “tolerant” or the “coward Hindus of Nepal kept all along a studied silence.

All in all, the sad Sialkot incident, let’s hope is not repeated in Pakistani soil.

People in Nepal hope Prime Minister Imran Khan upon his comeback from Qatar, as he promised, hits the nail right on the head of those who believe in lynching.

Hope the Pakistani society too restores the image that has surely been damaged but not beyond repair.

That’s all.