Hatred thrives on apathy. When the nation’s attention is diverted by a comparative sideshow like the Panama Papers verdict, the mongerers of fear and loathing come out in full force. The consensus that those who so cruelly lynched and murdered Mashal Khan deserve to be punished is now being threatened by those who want to push the calumny that he got what he deserved. In the past couple of days, there have been voices on television and the print media blaming the victim, justifying the attack and even celebrating his murder. It is our duty to push back against them. This would be the time for stricter regulation against spreading hate and intolerance but that can only happen if the rest of us do not get distracted by the same old political fights. The media has a duty to play too. It needs to be careful in its reporting and not rush to run on a loop the first video it gets its hands on. Selective footage, like the one which had everyone rushing to declare that Mashal was shot dead before being beaten, only gives space to those who want to confuse the issue.
The initial reaction to Mashal’s killing gave some cause for hope as even politicians who have skirted the blasphemy issue or supported the vigilante killings of people accused of blasphemy came together to condemn the murder. That turned out to be a mirage. Now that the spotlight is on the Panama Papers case, parties like the JUI-F – which were hesitant to speak out on the murder to begin with – are quietly refusing to support resolutions against the killing. Even those who did take that bare minimum step are now wholly consumed by the Panama Papers. They followed the rote script of denunciating the murder but were obviously hoping the nation’s attention would be diverted and that they would have to do no more. Everyone is culpable in forgetting about Mashal even as more facts emerge about the case. Another student of Abdul Wali Khan University was arrested on Saturday and the superintendent of the university was sent to prison on judicial remand. Meanwhile, protests around the country gather steam even as they are all but blacked out by a media that either shamefully displays selective humanity or is more interested in getting vox pops from irrelevant, publicity-hungry politicians than showing the genuine outpouring of anger against Mashal’s murder. It is telling that as recently as Thursday a mentally-challenged man was attacked by a mob in Chitral because he was accused of blasphemy. Till we focus all our attentions on Mashal and everyone else who is targeted by agents of hate, these mobs are empowered by us.