Sindh: Mirpurkhas Police Deputy Inspector General (D.I.G.) Javed Jiskani and Senior Superintendent of Police (S.S.P.) Asad Ali Chaudhry being praised and garlanded by Islamic clerics and Member of National Assembly Pir Amir Ali Shah Jeelani for the extrajudicial killing of Dr. Shahnawaz Kunhbar in a fake encounter. Jeelani belongs to Pakistan People’s Party of President Asif Ali Zardari. The policemen were suspended after public outrage.

The latest story from the fabled Umerkot city in the land of love and peace Sindh, is gut-wrenching. Reader discretion is requested.

In Umerkot’s folk story Umar and Marvi, Marvi symbolizes Sindhi resistance to the status quo. “Umar, your wealth and jewels are not even equal to the dust of my beloved’s feet,” Marvi is said to have told her tormentor Umar, according to Prestine Travel. Umar was the feudal ruler who had imprisoned Marvi at his fort in Umerkot for rejecting his amorous advances.

Umerkot is also the birthplace of Mogul Emperor Akbar. Though all Mogul rulers were despots, Akbar was the least evil of them all as he was of a secular character and believed in universal harmony among all religions.

But last week, Umerkot earned infamy because of the extrajudicial killing of a young Sindhi doctor, Shahnawaz Kunhbar, for blasphemy. The Islamists not only demanded his killing and celebrated his death, but also blocked the burial of the victim in the local graveyard

When the family took the victim doctor’s body to their own private land for burial, the Islamists showed up there too. These extremists snatched the body from the family members, doused gasoline on it and set it on fire.

The body would have been burned totally but for a Hindu youth Prem Kohli. He is said to have put off the flames, picked the body and ran away from the frenzied crowd. While the policemen were celebrated by the Islamists, the brave Hindu man was honored as a hero by secular Sindhi nationalists.

Kohli was honored among others by women activists Sindhoo Nawaz Ghangro and Sorath Sindhu, who are rumored to be lesbian lovers. They kissed his hand— Muslim women rarely kiss a Hindu man’s hand in public.

Another feminist activist Amar Sindhu, who is also rumored to be lesbian, visited the bereaved family. In a Facebook post, Amar Sindhu said the family reiterated Kunhbar was killed in a fake police encounter. The family is now being threatened by the police not to tell the story, Amar Sindhu wrote in her Facebook post.

The chief culprit in the alleged extrajudicial custodial killing is an I.S.I. compliant police officer, Deputy Inspector General of Police Javed Soonharo Jiskani. Alongside the jubilant Islamic clerics, Jiskani was felicitated by member of Pakistan’s lower house of parliament or National Assembly, Pir Amir Ali Shah Jeelani.

Jeelani belongs to the Pakistan People’s Party, led by president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari and his son, former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Asif Zardari’s youngest daughter Aseefa Bhutto Zardari is member of the National Assembly. The eldest daughter Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari husband is an Ahmadi— scores of Ahmadis have been killed for blasphemy in the last four decades since U.S. backed Gen Ziaul Haq codified death for blasphemers. In fact the first blasphemy victim in Pakistan was an Ahmadi, Major Mahmud Ahmad.

Lawyer and human rights defender Mohammed Jibran Nasir shared the video of Pir Jeelani talking to the media, alongside Jiskani and SSP Chaudhry, a retired captain of the military. He said Jeelani “starts off by talking about religious harmony and co-existence and then immediately says that we do not consider any blasphemer a human being without even demanding any investigation into the accusations.”

Jiskani was a Chevening scholar (2019-2020), had written a book on the Right to Self Determination for Kashmir— Kashmir is the pet subject of Pakistan military and intelligence services. When asked, Barrister Mustafa Mahesar said he has known Jiskani since the days he was additional advocate general Sindh at Sindh High Court Karachi. “He used to come to my office in a number of extrajudicial killing cases.” Mahesar added, “He comes from a very humble background but now he is a billionaire.”

Jiskani is seen in pictures socializing with Mushahid Husain Syed, who mostly acts as a go between the military and civilian as he enjoys the support of the Deep State; Amir Zia, a former progressive who switched his loyalty towards the soldiers; and Jami Chandio, who Jiskani calls his brother. Jiskani is also praised by Sindhi nationalist leader Ayaz Latif Palijo for killing 100 dacoits or armed robbers in encounters.

Jiskanis victim Dr. Kunhbar, the alleged blasphemer, while he was in hiding went on social media and denied in his native Sindhi language that he had ridiculed the Prophet of Islam. He requested all those calling for his death to let the police do its job. The family then made arrangements with the police and Dr. Kunhbar surrendered to the cops, according to the ABC news.

But instead of protecting his life, Jiskani allegedly ordered him killed in a police encounter at the Sindhri police station in Mirpurkhas.

The victim was denied a right to burial by the Islamists. “The body of Dr. Shahnawaz instead of receiving a proper burial as per religious rituals and fundamental right to inviolable dignity was instead handed over to the mob and burnt in an open field,” lawyer Nasir lamented.

Kunhbar’s was the second extrajudicial killing by the police in as many weeks. A week earlier, Abdul Ali, 52, also known as Sakhi Lala, was shot dead in a heavily fortified police station in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, by police officer Saayd Mohammad Sarhadi, according to the Associated Press. The killer, who had accessed the facility by pretending to be Ali's relative, has been pardoned by the family.

The Associated Press cited one of the elders of Abdul Ali’s tribe, Faizullah Noorzai, as saying the tribe would disown Ali. "We and our families are the kind of people who would sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Prophet Muhammad and his respect."

“Abdul Ali was neither a rationalist nor under the influence nor mentally sick,” said Najeebullah Kakar, who is originally from Quetta but now lives in Georgia. He said the dead man’s son was a graduate from the seminary and sought forgiveness for his dad but no avail. “Abdul Ali used to upload videos on the social media and seemed frustrated over religious hysteria. In a slip of tongue he used a wrong adjective for Mohammed that proved to be his undoing.”

The mental health of any alleged blasphemer is not given any consideration by the unlettered religious zealots. That was true for Kunhbar, according to local social activist Zulfiqar Halepota. “He was ill,” Halepota said.

Halepota posted the medical record of Kunhbar that showed he had a history of cannabis induced psychosis.

Barrister Mahesar regretted the key role of the Punjabi settlers, called Abadgaars, in inciting mob violence against Kunhbar. He pointed out that Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmad Arain, president of the settlers main body in Sindh, called Anjuman Arain, publicly hailed Jiskani and Chaudhry for sending Kunhbar “to hell.”

“The Anjuman Arain and Zia Foundation national leader is Ejazul Haq, son of dictator Gen Ziaul Haq,” Barrister Mahesar pointed out. In fact, Gen Ziaul Haq was the main mentor of Sharif political dynasty who are once again in power with the support of army chief Gen Asim Munir— a diehard Islamist who has rote memorized the Muslim Bible, called Koran. The late dictator, with U.S. blessings, codified death for blasphemers in the 1980s. Hundreds of people, mainly Christians and Ahmadis, have been killed for blasphemy since then.

One of the most infamous cases was the killing of former Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer. His death went unwept and unsung after he was killed by his guard Mumtaz Qadri. Taseer was killed for trying to help a Christian woman named Asiya Bibi who spent a decade behind bars for blasphemy before escaping to Canada with the direct help of prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Unlike Punjab where the Tehrik Labbaik Pakistan (T.L.P.) has terrorized the masses, Sindhis are trying to fight back against religious extremism.A massive rally was held Wednesday at the Umerkot Press Club to demand justice for Kunhbar and arrest of Jiskani, Chaudhry and other police officials.

Umar Ashar, a young Pakistani posted on Faceboook, “Criticism of any religion isn’t and shouldn’t be blasphemous. And it sure as hell shouldn’t be a death sentence. There’s a difference between criticism of certain beliefs and their practices and disrespecting them, however in Pakistan, anyone who dares to speak their mind even without being disrespectful is a target.”

Umerkot was once a Hindu majority city, with 80 percent Hindus. But the Indo-Pakistan wars in 1965 and 1971 drastically changed the composition of the city, according to a report in the Scroll.

As far as blasphemy goes, some Islamic scholars say Muhammad had himself ordered the execution of a Jewish notable Ka’ab bin Ashraf for blasphemy. Two of the most reliable books on the Prophets saying, Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, confirm that Muhammad had ordered those who insult him to be killed.

In Pakistan, the first blasphemy killing took place on August 11, 1948– three days before the first anniversary of the British creation of Pakistan, in the wake of the division of India in August 1947.

Top: Jiskani, who ordered the extrajudicial killing of Kunhbar for committing blasphemy, shows off he was a finalist last year in the Integrity Icon of the so-called Accountability Lab. Bottom: Body of Kunhbar who was said to have been killed extrajudicially within boundaries of the Sindhri police station by the Mirpurkhas police.

Closing words

After hue and cry, instead of arresting and putting D.I.G. Jiskani and S.S.P. Chaudhry behind bars, Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah suspended them. This in reality means they will return to duty in the near future no sooner than the dust settles.

There are quite a few factors behind the unconscionable killings for blasphemy.

One is the Pakistan military and I.S.I. directly promote such killings so as to blackmail the U.S. and other Western nations to give them money otherwise the Islamists are going to take over the country’s rein.

In Sindh, the chief executive Murad Ali Shah, who is on that post after clearance from the military corps commander of Karachi, is a direct beneficiary. The blasphemy killings instill more fear in the hearts of the people in the Sindh countryside about the power of the Syeds as they call themselves direct descendants of Muhammad. Shah, Pir Jeelani and the top bureaucrat of the province Syed Asif Hyder Shah, many others in power, are all from the Syed clan.

Despite being top notch in Sindh’s power hierarchy, they depend upon I.S.I. touts to achieve high office to rule the province.

One such Syed was Sain G.M. Syed. Ironically Syed had incited communal violence against Hindus on the Masjid Manzilgah. However, he was remorseful of his blunder all his life, became the Godfather of Sindhi nationalism and spent decades behind bars for demanding Sindh’s liberation.