When Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf declared Friday as a special public holiday, naming it a “Day of Love for the Prophet,” his government thought that official facilitation was the best way to contain mass anger. It turned first to the regular police and later to the army when protestors led by lawyers walked towards the high security zone of diplomatic enclave in Islamabad. The crack down was brutal, according to reports in Pakistani media. Protests were also staged in the commercial capital, Karachi, cultural capital, Lahore, garrison town Rawalpindi which hosts the army headquarters and Peshawar, the gateway to the tribal heartland that borders Afghanistan.
Islamabad Police Chief Bin Yamin Khan said 50,000 to 60,000 people participated in the protest in the capital city alone. Five persons were killed and 60 injured. In Karachi, police shot dead 11 persons and injured at least 80. Three policemen also died in clashes. In Mardan, near Peshawar, more than 50,000 people participated in a demonstration. Police arrested hundreds of people in the crackdown through out the country.
On Saturday, September 22, courts in Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore ordered to remand at least 185 people produced by the police, Dawn reported. More than 6,000 people would be booked for rioting; Police are scanning CCTV footage to carry out more arrests. They will be tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, which is a first for such quasi-official protests. . The anti-terror law provides for death sentence or life imprisonment for murder or attempt to murder.
Already Karachi anti-terrorism courts sent more than 100 protestors to police custody. The charges against them range from attempted murder, rioting and using firearms, to obstructing public servants, and damaging public and private property. Among the properties vandalized are iconic cinema theatres in Karachi and Peshawar
On the eve of the anti-film protests, the Obama administration correctly gauged the anger among the Pakistani people. It went the extra mile to douse public anger. It spent $70,000 to buy advertisements on seven TV channels in Pakistan distancing Washington from the anti-Islam film. This advertisement carried statements by US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton criticizing the film.
There is no denying that there is anger against America amongst the ordinary Pakistanis they are brought up on a daily diet of anti-Americanism and gory tales of American atrocities against fellow Muslims in Afghanistan. Both Afghan war and the drone attacks which are also resulting in innocent deaths have not endeared the US to the people of Pakistan even as their country depends on financial doles from Washington.
Whatever lingering doubts are there are neatly set at rest by railway minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour’s offer of $100,000 from his personal pocket for anyone who murdered the American director of anti-Islam film, the government distanced itself from the minister but he has been left untouched. In any other democracy, the likes of Bilours would have been banished. In Pakistan they are being feted and eulogized.
Well, this is another facet of Pakistan’s duplicity in the war against terrorism, which it joined in 2001 under military dictator Pervez Musharraf. 2011-2012 has seen many new lows in the relations between the US and Pakistan. Only in the past couple of months things started looking up, and this upturn in the relations has brought new demands that Pakistan should do more on the anti-terrorism front. The dilemma for Islamabad is that it cannot go against this American wish on its soil as it needs Washington’s support to get the IMF bailout for the battered and bruised economy.
