Is Hafiz Saeed's popularity growing in Pakistan? by Sohail Khurianwala

As a Pakistani who wants COURSE CORRECTION to happen very quickly in my country,

Hafiz Saeed’s popularity may be growing among the violent and Jihad minded sections of our society and country but it does not bode well for our country and society.

I hate both Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar as well as their financiers and backers - certain politicians and high ranking officers in the ISI and Pak Army.

I do not want to play the Kashmir-Card anymore since it is only causing Kashmiris to lose their lives fighting a formidable war machine which is the fourth largest in the world, backed by the second largest population in the world and an economy which is ten times the size of our economy.

Just like the Chechens could not wrest their country free from Russia, or the Tibetans and Uighurs cannot think of breaking away from China, the same holds true for Kashmiris whose interests are best served if they make peace with India and discourage Pakistani authorities from meddling in their affairs.

I have interacted with Indians in Dubai and I can tell you this - Indian Muslims and Hindus are both very angry with this blinkered attitude we demonstrate, where they accuse us Pakistanis of thinking about ourselves to be the sole custodians of Muslims in the entire subcontinent and being more Muslim than the Muslims in India or Bangladesh.

We Muslims in Pakistan are not the model or template for all Muslims in South Asia. We need to recognize this fact. There are Muslims in India and Bangladesh who are doing well or perhaps even better than us.

We Pakistanis have not done anything substantial in humanitarian terms to call ourselves the custodians of all Muslims South Asia - We have not raised the standards of living of either our countrymen in our country now or in the past and nor did we help improve the lives of our former countrymen - The East Pakistanis and keep them with us.

The one thing that has happened consistently since 1947 is this fact:

Pakistan and the Two Nation Theory has led to the marginalization and KILLING of more Muslims in the entire subcontinent in the name of Islam, in the last 70 years than we can ever think of - beginning with the partition riots of 1947 in both Bengal and West Punjab, where the Muslim League supporters first carried out religion-motivated attacks against minorities in both Bengal (Calcutta and Noakhali) and Western Punjab and the Frontier Areas - inviting - massive retaliatory attacks and massacres against Muslims in both Bihar and East Punjab.

Pakistani authorities were responsible for the genocide of Bengali speaking Muslims in East Pakistan in 1971, the killing of many Pashtuns in the blow-back of the Afghan Jihad against the Soviets in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, the killing of thousands of Kashmiris in their futile Jihad against India since the lates 1980s and finally the murder of many Muslim minorities like Shias, Ismailis, Ahmedis and Bahai in our own country.

When will all these killings stop in the name of religion ?

When will we stop financing terrorists who want to cause mayhem in South Asia ?

That is the big question… which all upright and conscientious Pakistanis… each one of us need to address.

It can only be tackled if sane, secular minded and liberal folks like me in Pakistan stand up, shake our fists vigorously at the Pakistan Army, Intelligence Agencies and Political establishment who support this carnage and cry out once and for all.

ENOUGH is ENOUGH ! Stop sponsoring Jihads in our neighboring countries … if we do not want our country to be in the world- news daily dues to terror-attacks like these:

Senior police officers among 13 killed as suicide bomber strikes Lahore