Lynchistan is doomed

The author is Berlin-based social work student, former Pakistani journalist, editor indus.news, and member of Germany’s social democrats party.

Pakistan has seen a surge in violent extremist mob lynchings where anyone accused of blasphemy is executed by the enraged mob in a manner reminiscent only of the medieval times. The latest in the series took place in Swat on Friday where an charged mob stormed the police station to drag the blasphemy accused, — a tourist visiting for Eid holiday — stripped him naked, beat him to death and then set the corpse on fire while still violently beating it. Some reports suggest the man was set ablaze while still alive. All this while the police watched helplessly.

The fact that the state has encouraged these militants to create space for themselves and used them against the opponents, and the fact that the state now lets these militants operate with impunity, and resultantly the rapidly worsening situation has made lose all hope for Pakistan for the first time in my life. And I’m sure it’s the sentiment shared by many. I have the privilege of not being in that hellhole anymore but I can try to imagine the horror and the fear the vulnerable in the country feel in the face of the rising violence. Imagine being a minority in that country right now, a religious minority, a gender/sexual minority, a woman, heck try to imagine to be an innocent person knowing at any point anyone can frame you out of personal grudge and then it’s only a matter of time until you’re greeted with an unimaginably painful death.

Not only does the state not act against it, the state apparatus as well as politicians use these fringe elements for their own agendas and against their opponents. And every political actor has done that. The state’s security institutions have provided them with patronage and money in the past and the politicians from every political party have used religious card and blasphemy card against the opponent.

I literally have no hope for that country anymore. It’s so frustrating to watch a country go up in flames which I once thought was destined for greatness. In my younger days I believed in potential of the overwhelmingly younger population of the country. Through blogging, digital media, and journalism, I’ve tried to do my bit. My work in the past has entailed speaking for human rights of the oppressed and the vulnerable, including the religious, gender and sexual minorities. My friends often asked me how’s that working out for me since I ended up in exile… away from Pakistan.

Only in the past five years a lot has changed. And not for the better. On top of the steep rise in extremism, we now have western styled populism with Islamist-fascist aspirations being mediated through digital media platforms and engulfing the younger generation. They are extremely popular with Gen-Z on TikTok, for example. The content mostly is chest-thumping jingoism with a dose of Islamism, nationalism, and male chauvinism. The enemy: women, transpersons, the queer community, Ahmadis, and other minorities. Method: Flexing of muscle and chest-thumping profession of love for own interpretation of Islam by beating to death anyone that stands in the way. This shock of such visuals and mob behaviour obviously desensitizes the idealistic younger generation prone to violent extremism.

Despite having to have left my country, I somehow have had hope. That it’s only a matter of time that things will start to improve and that Pakistan will be back on track of the greatness I once thought it was destined to be. Five years down, I have only seen things get worse, and worse, and worse… to the point that I literally have zero hope left.