Fighting bigotry with Attan

Beating dhols, playing flutes and performing the traditional Pashtun dance Attan, Pashtun artistes from Masan Road, Keamari created a passionate spectacle for many gathered outside Karachi Press Club on Sunday.

“I came here to perform to express solidarity with the Pashtun students who were beaten up at the Punjab University for performing Attan,” said Bakhtiarullah, 28, one of the artistes who had spent two hours in scorching heat beating a dhol.

On Karachi Press Club road, the response to the Punjab University clashes has been intense since Wednesday when they had occurred.

On Thursday, groups affiliated with the Awami National Party and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf organised separate protest rallies, alleging that the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, a sister organisation of the Jamaat-e-Islami, had been targeting Pashtun and Baloch students at the Punjab University, Lahore.

On the same day, the IJT too organised a rally titled “Tahafuz Nazarya-e-Pakistan” claiming that ethnic groups were hatching a conspiracy against it.

However, on Sunday, Pashtun activists protested in a unique way by performing Attan.

Yasir Kundi, the event’s organiser, said he had used social media to mobilise the citizens of Karachi so that they could denounce the IJT’s attacks on cultural events by performing Attan. “Pashtuns are peaceful and today they are dancing to register their protest,” Kundi added pointing towards the dozens swirling to the beat of dhols in a circle.

Most of the people who participated in the event were affiliated with the ANP and its sister organisations, the National Youth Organisation and the Pashtun Students Federation.

However, members of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, the PTI and the Pakistan People’s Party wearing their party caps were also present there.

Hameedullah Khattak, the ANP Sindh information secretary, said because of the militancy and the ongoing operations in the tribal areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, many students from these areas had moved to Lahore and were studying at the Punjab University.

“But the IJT activists have been targeting them there for no reason.”

Khattak regretted that the Punjab government had not taken action against people who had attacked Pashtun students at the university and had remained a mere spectator during the violence.

“It is the Punjab government’s responsibility to provide protection to the students at the campus,” he added.

In the circle, the artistes joined by others kept dancing, slowing and then stepping up the pace with the beats of the dhols, moving faster and faster till exhaustion.

Sarwar Shamal, a Pashtun cultural activist, said the participants also performed other traditional dances including the Mehsud, Akakhel and Quettawal Attans.