Variety

After showing Indian celebrities with pellet injuries, a blindfolded Nawaz Sharif stuns Pakistan

DailyBiteJuly 29, 2016 | 17:07 IST

When Mohammad Jibran Nasir used Photoshopped images of Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt, Virat Kohli and Narendra Modi, among others, with pellet gun injuries in their disfigured and obviously morphed faces, he created a viral campaign to underscore the plight of Kashmiri boys and girls scarred by the recent crackdown.

The campaign, though widely lauded, also got its fair share of criticism. Chiefly in DailyO, our columnist highlighted how Nasir's portrayal might not heal Kashmir but may become an excuse for others, perhaps aggrieved persons, to harm the people depicted in his Facebook page.

 

Moreover, Nasir was also called out on his disproportionate complacence on the Hindus, Christians and Ahmadis being killed and brutalised in Pakistan.

Looks like he took the criticism seriously and came back with an equally stinging Facebook campaign to protest against the atrocities on religious minorities in his country, and more immediately, the murder of two Hindu boys in Ghotki, Sindh.

In his famous and controversial "Never Forget Pakistan" page on Facebook, Nasir has put up a picture of a blindfolded Nawaz Sharif, no less than the incumbent prime minister of the country, and has a text accompanying it which happens to be a hard-hitting letter to the Pakistan PM on his silence and apathy towards the sufferings of religious minorities in Pakistan.

Also read - Attacks on Hindus for blasphemy show Pakistan doesn't respect human rights

In the recent years, Pakistan has witnessed a string of human rights violations - including deadly blasts in churches in Peshawar, lynching and killings of minorities, particularly Hindus, Christians and Ahmadis. Though blasphemy laws are being looked into, it remains one of the chief weapons to unleash horrors on the minorities.

The dishonourable murder of Qandeel Baloch, attacking Hindus in Sindh for having food before iftar during Ramzan, and arrest of Hindu men for "desecrating the Quran" and the fatal lynching of Hindu boys for the same allegation have created a massive furore in the liberal sections of Pakistani civil society.

Also read - Why must women pay? Qandeel Baloch's murder has left Pakistan sick

But though there are murmurs on social media and some protests on the streets of big cities such as Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore, so far the plight of minorities has failed to gather enough momentum in Pakistan.

Will Nasir's Facebook campaign with Nawaz Sharif's blindfolded face finally jolt Pakistanis out of their collective complacence?

Let's hope so.

Last updated: July 29, 2016 | 17:07
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