quetta – Laaltain

Irfan Ali, with Khudi Ali as his social media alias, was a peace and human rights activist belonging to Hazara community. Last month, when two bombs blasts on Alamdar Road in Quetta targeting Hazara Shias took more than 100 lives, Irfan was one among who died. He got martyred in the second blast while helping those who injured in the first one. Both his life and death are an inspiration for his friends and fellow activists. Here are some memories and views about Irfan Ali and his life.

Rajab Ali (Friend, Activist)

Who would have thought that a young energetic guy of 32 years with curly hairs and persuasive way of discourse would leave us so early when we needed him the most? Words sometimes are not the medium to express our feelings and emotions. Irfan and I had the intimacy that today I still cannot believe that he is no more with us. His ideas were my ideals and his thoughts became my ideology. I used to try to imitate him. The way he stressed some words had the power to attract any stranger he met once in his life. Today he is though physically killed but his martyrdom has made him immortal.

RoohullahGulzari (Friend, Activist)

I met Irfan a few times and he always inspired me. He wanted to bring Hazara issue on the twitter trend list to highlight our plight. But there came the day when his own name #RIPKhudiAli appeared at the top of trend list. That was a heart wrenching moment for me. For me, he was a personification of honesty, compassion and bravery.

BeenaSarwar (Journalist, Activist)

I met Irfan in July in Karachi for the first time at the Social Media Mela, but we had been in touch for some time via email. He was such a bright, smiling, courageous, and committed young man. Irfan was vocal and outspoken on many platforms. His presence will be sorely missed but his legacy of fearless activism remains. The best tribute we can pay him is to continue fighting those very forces that killed him.

Ahmad Shujaa (Washington based Afghan Analyst recalling a recent conversation with Irfan)

It took me a while to notice, but somewhere during that conversation Khudi had broken down, silently crying. I had imagined him as a hardened activist who had grown used to conversations about loss because he dealt with it so often. But that night he seemed just as hurt and vulnerble as the rest of us, pained by the memories of the friends he’d lost, the distances the attacks had created between the Shia-Hazaras and the non-Shia, non-Hazara residents of Quetta. In some ways, he was more hurt than me because, while I reacted to the bloodbath from the safety of Washington, he was in the middle of it, occasionally picking up the dead bodies and, as every so often happened, pieces of bodies….

Activism in Pakistan, as in many developing countries, tends to be an elite preoccupation. People who worry about their next meal rarely lead campaigns, rarely go on hunger strike and almost never coin revolutionary Twitter hashtags. People who have a family to feed and clothe are usually too busy to go to attack sites and rescue victims, to hospitals and give blood, to protest rallies and chant slogans.

So, in a way, Khudi was an elite. But he was in the thick of it everyday. He wasn’t a dual citizen, didn’t have a safe perch, didn’t content himself with online petitions or after-work sit-ins.

Shiraz Hassan (Blogger, Friend, Activist)

This is heart-wrenching. I cannot forget the smiling face of Irfan Ali. He gave a voice to his voiceless community and his words are still echoing in this gloomy atmosphere and asking the government and security agencies to protect its citizens.

TaimurRahman (Singer, Activist)

RIP Irfan. Your knowledge of existential philosophy, love of music, support for human rights, women’s rights, and defense of shias touched all of us. We promise to continue your struggle my friend.

اختر عثمان
ادیب، شاعر، نقاد اور دانشورانسانی تاریخ میں سب سے اہم سوال روئے زمین پر امن کا قیام رہا ہے۔ بیسویں صدی کے پہلے نصف میں انسان نے دو عظیم جنگوں کا روگن سہا۔ لہٰذا بیسویں صدی کے دوسرے نصف میں تمام علوم ‘امن مرکز’ ہو گئے۔ جنگ نے ایک صنعت کا درجہ اختیار کیا تو ترقی پذیر مغرب پیداواری معاشرے، اور مشرق صارف معاشرے کے طور پر نمودار ہوا۔ تیسری دنیا جسے اب گلوبل ساوتھ کہا جاتا ہے، خاص طور پر پچھلے تیس برسوں میں نقص امن کا شکار چلی آتی ہے۔ صنعتی سرمایہ داری میں نے اپنا اسلحہ تیسری دنیا کے ان ممالک کو فروخت کیا جو صرف حربی برتری کے حوالے سے سبقت چاہتے ہیں۔ ہندوستان اور پاکستان ایشیا میں اس سلسلے کی نمایاں مثالیں ہیں جن کے بجٹ کا اسی فیصد سے زائد حربی آلات کی خریداری میں صرف ہو رہا ہے۔ دنیا کے ان خطوں میں ‘امن بذریعہ جنگ’ کے قیام کو باقاعدہ فلسفہ بنایا جا رہا ہے۔ دہشت گردی انہی سماجی و معاشی حالات کی زایدہ ہے۔
جن لوگوں نے قیام امن کے لیے پر خلوص کوششیں کیں، ان میں عالمی دہشت گردی کے تازہ ترین ہدف عرفان علی خودی کا نام امن پسندوں کے لیے ہمیشہ درس کے طور پر آتا رہے گا۔ خودی نے علاقائی اور عالمی سطحوں پر امن کے لیے پایدار اور غیر متزلزل کوششیں کیں۔ اس سفر میں ان کی ملاقات، مکالمے کے لیے مجھ سے بھی ہوئی اور میں نے دیکھا کہ وہ امن کی ٹھوس تجاویز کے لیے ناصرف یہ کہ بیتاب ہیں، بلکہ انہیں عملی صورت میں بھی نافذ دیکھنا چاہتے ہیں۔ عمر کے اُس حصے میں عرفان علی خودی کے لیے دوسرے نوجوانوں کی طرح یہ ضروری نہیں تھا کہ وہ کوئی بھی تہذیبی ذمہ داری قبول کریں۔ لیکن انہوں نے ایک دیانتدار تہذیبی فرض کے طور پر عالمی امن کو اپنے فرائض میں پہلے نمبر پر رکھا۔ وہ قیام امن کے لیے غیر سرکاری تنظیموں سے امداد طلب بھی نہیں ہوئے اور حکومتوں سے بھی اس سلسلے میں کوئی تقاضا نہیں کیا۔ یوں کہنا چاہیے کہ امن عرفان علی خودی کے لیے عالمی قضیہ تھا، جسے باقاعدہ نظریاتی شکل دینا ان کا نصب العین بن گیا۔ آج عرفان علی خودی ہم میں نہیں، لیکن قیامِ امن کے لیے ان کی کوششیں آتی نسلوں کے لیے راستے ہموار کریں گی۔

سجاد چنگیزی
دوست، نوجوان سماجی کارکن

عرفان بھائی ایک دوست کے علاوہ انسانی حقوق کی جدوجہد میں ایک سرگرم اور قابل ِ تقلید شخصیت تھے – اُن سے میری پہلی ملاقات اکتوبر 2011 میں خودی پاکستان کے ‘انٹرنیشنل یوتھ کانفرنس – اسلام آباد’ میں ہوئی اور اس کے بعد ہم مختلف فورمز پر ساتھ ساتھ کام کرتے رہے – اُن کی زندگی کا سب سے روشن پہلو میرے نزدیک یہ ہے کہ مظلوم کمیونٹی کی نفسیاتی علیحدگی پسندی اور گوشہ نشینی کے برخلاف انہوں نے دیگر اقوام میں گھل مل کر دوست بنانے کو اپنی زندگی کا اصول بنا لیا۔ خلوص اور انسان دوستی پر مبنی ان کے ان گنت روابط اور رشتوں کی وجہ سے ان کی شہادت پر ہزارہ سے زیادہ غیر ہزارہ اور شیعہ سےکہیں زیادہ غیر شیعہ آنکھیں اشکبار تھیں –

(Published in The Laaltain – Issue 7)

A recent survey by Pew Research Center gives a bleak picture of the sectarian divide in Pakistani society. According to the survey, about 50% of Sunni Muslims in Pakistan consider Shia beliefs to be heretic or a deviant form of Islam. Further to this, there is polarization within society on almost every social and political issue. If consensus does exist on some issues, there are differences of opinion regarding the pertaining solutions and policies. The general apathy surrounding the persecution of the Hazara Shia community is a manifestation of such polarization. However, in recent weeks an unprecedented show of solidarity for the Hazara community was displayed across the country. The slogan of ‘We are all Hazara’ became a meme.

The Hazara Shia community of Pakistan has been facing systematic persecution for the past decade or so. More than one thousand innocent Hazara men, women and children have lost their lives to date merely due to their religious beliefs. But the incident on 10^th January, when twin suicide blasts on Quetta’s Alamdar Road killed more than 120 people (most of them Hazaras) was the most devastating one so far. The bereaved community took the dead bodies of their loved ones to the site of the blast and refused to bury them until their demands were met by the authorities.

Hundreds of people, including women and children, staged a sit-in in freezing temperatures to demand protection and justice. The unusual sight of women in this political gathering and the fact that religious teachings instruct Muslims to bury the dead as soon as possible, couldn’t have sent a clearer reminder of the helplessness and misery of the Hazara community. These heartbreaking images forced common Pakistanis to come out of their homes and participate in the sit-ins to show solidarity for those in mourning and to condemn this barbaric act.

The sit-in that started in Quetta was soon followed by protests in other major cities. Civil society activists and rights organizations staged vigils where non-Shias were outnumbered by Shias. At Liberty Roundabout in Lahore, members of the Christian community, themselves victims of religious extremism, participated with great enthusiasm.

Two aspects which make these nationwide protests distinctive are worth mentioning. Firstly, the nonviolent nature and discipline of these protests was so remarkable that not even a single bullet was fired or a tire set ablaze. Secondly, people participated in these protests to not only to show their solidarity for the bereaved community but also out of a sense of general insecurity as citizens of a state where religious and sectarian differences might eventually become the reason for their death.

The protests resulted in the proclamation of Governor Rule and the sacking of the ineffective government of Chief Minister Raisani. The level of insensitivity of the incumbent CM was such that he used to mock serious security issues with his petty jokes. Leaving aside the fruitfulness of the Governor Rule, this success has at least set a positive precedent that peaceful, non-violent protests are more effective and far-reaching than outrageous vigilantism in which public properties are destroyed. Moreover it also proves that any sort of armed retaliation would also be futile.

As I write these lines I remember Irfan Khudi Ali, a human rights activist and one of the victims of the blasts. My last interaction with him was at a juice shop on the same Alamdar Road where he embraced martyrdom. I remember him mentioning how as Pakistanis we have selective moral outrage when it comes to human rights advocacy. He said that we seem too concerned about the Rohingya Muslims but at the same time indifferent to the persecution of our own compatriots. While quoting Saadat Hassan Manto’s famous saying “Don’t say that 1 lac Muslims and 1 lac Hindus have been killed, say 2 lac humans have been killed”, he urged to raise our voices for all the voiceless communities in Pakistan and around the world. He was indeed blessed with a true humanistic soul. Today he would have been proud to see that his countrymen have come out to join his community’s cause and are united on a simple yet powerful idea that persecution of anyone on the basis of creed is not acceptable.

The Hazara cause should not be seen as an isolated issue from the rest of Pakistan but an indicator of how injustice to one community is bound to spread to the rest. Similarly, our moral support should not be exclusively for Hazaras but should include the communities whose graves and worship places are desecrated every other day in this land of the pure. The mutilated bodies in Balochistan are a stain on our collective morality and our apathy towards it equals legitimizing this heinous act.

In fact, standing for the rights of minorities is nothing short of standing for the noble ideals of religious freedom, pluralism and equality; the ideals Jinnah mentioned in his famous speech before the Constituent Assembly on 11^th August 1947. In his speech, Jinnah envisioned the nature of a newly born nation where the state would not interfere with the beliefs of her citizens. Hence any effort to protect a vulnerable community is like embracing, cherishing and realizing Jinnah’s Pakistan.

Although we follow different religions and sects, speak different languages and have distinct racial features, there is an everlasting relation, the thread of humanity, which binds all of us. Beliefs are different, but our destiny is the same and that destiny is a country where people won’t be discriminated on the basis of their identity. Let’s embark collectively on this journey towards a high moral ground with non-violence as a weapon and humanity as our primary slogan, the way the Hazaras did.

—Written by Roohullah Gulzari

(Published in The Laaltain – Issue 7)