When Gojra became Godhra
By Tanzeel • Aug 6th, 2009 • Category: Politics • 10 Comments
On February 27, 2002, 58 Hindus, including 25 women and 15 children were burnt alive in a railway coach by a Muslim mob in the town of Godhra, India — following an altercation between local Muslims and activists of the VHP returning by the Sabarmathi express train from Ayodhya. Initial media reports blamed the local Muslims for setting the coach on fire, in what Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and the VHP leader Giriraj Kishore alleged was a “pre-planned” attack.
A Pakistani city Gojra has witnessed similar kind of carnage on August 01, 2009 when announcements through mosques in the town urged the Muslims to gather and ‘make mincemeat of Christians’ — according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan report.
Witnesses told the HRCP mission that when they informed the police about the announcements, the police officials also confirmed hearing them. The following day,
Aug 1, around 1,000 people gathered in the town and marched towards Christian Colony.
A police party present in the neighborhood did not try to stop the mob which included a number of masked men, the report said.
Witnesses said the attackers went about destroying Christians’ houses in a very professional manner and seemed to be trained for carrying out such activities.
They had brought along petrol and other inflammable substances and torched over 40 houses of Christian families in less than half an hour. There was loot and arson in which the adjacent houses of Muslims were spared, resulting around 12 deaths.
Be it India or Pakistan I don’t see any difference in above incidents. Both were preplanned massacres with the involvement of local administrations. In India it was Gujrat’s Minister Narendar Singh Modi who engineered one of the worst genocides of Muslims to please extremist elements and to satisfy his hate and in Pakistan it was Chief Minister of Punjab Mian Shehbaz Shareef who has given free hand to extremists to disrupt peace and harmony of our country though Shareef was not directly involved in this barbaric act of terrorism but being the Chief Minister responsibility lies on him.
Where was Shareef’s Administration ?
Shehbaz Shareef’s administration despite intimation of severe terrorism had ignored the concerns of Christians and intelligence agencies and turned a blind eye towards the horrendous massacre. PML N’s administration has criminally neglected clear warnings from the locals who had been complaining about the possible upcoming wave of terrorism against Christians for quite sometime. Why local administration never paid heed on the open hateful sermons given from the mosques, Why Chief Minister of Punjab reached Gojra (his own constituency) after 3 days and what made local police to delay lodging FIR of this genocide. Answers to these question are pretty clear — motives behind this incident were to destabilize Government, portraying negative image of Pakistan across the world so that Int’l community especially ‘Masters of Pakistan’ reconsider their relationship with an already weak PPP Government and to make grounds for their next option i.e Mr. Shareef who is restless to see Mid term elections these days. International media as well as foreign powers don’t really know about the local administration of Gojra but what they view is PPP is the whole sole in charge of Pakistan.
I believe Attacks on Christian families in Gojra expose the PML N government’s inefficiency, as things in Gojra started heating up on July 20 and the government did not take action to control them. Further more, killings in Gojra proved that the government’s claim of good governance was false, the violence could have been averted if the government had taken timely action but the acts like delaying FIR, ignoring residents’ qualms about law and order situation and removing DCOs and DPOs for criminal negligence but not getting them arrested for inquiry speak volume.
On the other hand Pakistan’s Judiciary — The 7th most corrupt institution of Pakistan( according to the Transparency Int’l report - 09) which is busy in undoing former president Musharraf’s acts, playing up with courts and putting country into trouble has conveniently ignored the horrendous massacre of Christians in the history of Pakistan.
The chief justice of Pakistan who takes Suo Moto actions even on minor issues decided to stay away from Pakistan’s national tragedy. They instead developed just-another Inquiry tribunal of the Lahore High Court which will be faded by the passage of time.
In short Shehbaz Shareef’s Provincial Government as well as our political judiciary both have completely been failed to provide security and justice to common people, our nation has been hijacked by the politicians who have a vested interest in destabilization of country. Shehbaz Shareef’s Government has recently withdrawn petition filed by Federal govt in court and has decided to disassociate from Hafiz Saeed (renowned religious extremist and international terrorist) case and filed a plea for withdrawal of the case. Another blot on Pakistan’s face!
I believe religious extremism can never be curbed from Pakistan unless we strictly implement laws with justice. Right after this incident voices in support of setting up laws on blasphemy had come but again are we ready to execute those laws in case of any mishap ?
Courtesy: Pakistan Desk.com
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You clearly mentioned that Muslims torched alive 58 hindus, including 25 women and 12 children…so who exactly massacred who in Godhra?
What exactly do you see here is common between Godhra and Gojra? Muslim fundamentalism! The evil muslims can keep on killing everyone and that’s okay but if we retaliate, then it is atrocities against Muslims and genocides by modi’s. What hypocrites!! A true sign of evil….World wide peoples patience is thinning out against the crazy Muslims who have a problem with everyone and fight with everyone.
When they go to other countries, they demand equal rights but in their own countries deny even basic rights…In Saudi, non-muslims are treated like dogs and second class citizens without even freedom to practice their own religion…
But in other countries, even if a small incident happens…these crazy people take to the roads that their religion is insulted and shout that they are being persecuted!
I seriously wish the world would be free of this evil and crazy religion which has no tolerance for others , whose policy is to kill and fight at every opportunity, does not listen to reason….
Tanzeel you conveniently forgot two massacres of Ahmadis by Sunnis; in 1953 and 1974. Both massacres were supported by sitting governments; provisional or central. Both massacres occurred before the Gujrat riots. So Pakistanis are actually giving ideas to Indians.
Justice Munir Enquiry Report on Anti-Ahmadiyya riots of 1953 (English)
thepersecution.org/dl/report_1953.pdf
Justice Munir Enquiry Report on Anti-Ahmadiyya riots of 1953 (Urdu)
thepersecution.org/dl/MunirReport.pdf
1974 Anti-Ahmadiyya Riots
thepersecution.org/facts/h71-80.html
You need to compare Godhra riots with 1974 Anti-Ahmadiyya riots. Both used an “incident” on a railway station as excuse to kill numerous innocent people and destroy property. However while many Indians seem to view Gujarat riots as a matter of shame, most Pakistanis seem to view anti-ahmadiyya riots as a matter of pride or at least justified. Add to this the draconian laws that were introduced against Ahmadis and have been quote numerous times here.
We have no choice but to deduct that Indian society has grown more aware of human values after partition compared to Pakistani society, most probably owning to India’s secular character as against Pakistan’s religious character. Indian Muslims are equal in the law and can go to court for their rights, that is half way there.
Indian Muslims are equal in the law and can go to court for their rights, that is half way there. This is not the case with Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan.
Umair, you are right and I must agree with you that Pakistani society has been systematically deteriorating to level of extreme intolerance & bigotry. Yes, indeed it all began with us going after the Ahmadis sect here. You might wish to correct your view about those incidents of anti-Ahmadiya “movements” - there never were any “riots” - we have always shamelessly attacked and destroyed those of our fellow citizens who were neither prepared, or able, or willing to fight. Because they believed and expected from our governments and fellow citizens to have the moral courage and sense of duty to come to their aid. We failed each time, when, tested - and now we all, each and everyone of us, is in danger of being attacked and annihiliated by anyone in the name of religion. It is shear lunacy when I allow myself the audacity to consider to be the only righteous believer among all here and take upon myself to correct the world according to my sense of right or wrong.
This was a Conspiracy created by Raw and implemented by our Religious Illitrate Masses.
I did not conveniently ignore anything. Persecution of Ahmedis is in my mind and lots of incidents — I have just picked the current one. Article is basically covering political side of the story. I still believe this incident could have been avoided had Shareef seriously taken precautionary measures.
Just the way they demanded Taseer to resign after attack on Sri Lanka team, nation should also demand resignation from ignorant CM who only travels b/w Raiwind and Lahore.
I did not ignore anything. I am well aware of persecution of Ahmedis in Pakistan but in this article current event’s administrative flaws have been covered only. Wanted to highlight negligence of our ruling political party. I believe this incident could have been avoided if Shehbaz had taken precautionary measures when reports were being presented to him, it seems he has no idea of what’s happening in rest of the punjab — Southern Punjab is burning, extremism, loadshedding, poverty and what not and now this incident. Who says Shehbaz is a good administrator ?
I did not conveniently ignore anything. Persecution of Ahmedis is in my mind and lots of incidents — I have just picked the current one. Article is basically covering political side of the story. I still believe this incident could have been avoided had Shareef seriously taken precautionary measures.
Just the way they demanded Taseer to resign after attack on Sri Lanka team, nation should also demand resignation from ignorant CM who only travels b/w Raiwind and Lahore.
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/aug2009-daily/06-08-2009/u1625.htm
Frankly, Benazir Bhutto and PPP’s dedication to minority rights, as well Zardari’s was always clear from the get-go and esepcially proven now, when he ordered an immediate investigation and Rangers were sent in to protect the community by the second day. On the other hand, Sharif’s Punjab government did nothing for 2 days as these already down-trodden, poverty-stricken Christians were murdered by extremist Muslims. There is no denying Zardari’s stellar behavior and performance, not even by his critics and naysayers. This should have no effect on destabilizing us – in fact it should only prove how dedicated and strong our President it.