The modest little house is a maelstorm of grief. In the compound, dozens of people mill about, some of them are journalists wielding cameras, others relatives or friends come to pay their respects, and still others just passing by to witness the comings and goings, to see a human tragedy playing out before their eyes.
Shabaz Bhatti came here to his mother’s house every morning to take breakfast with her. Then he’d drive to the office where he would pick up his bodyguards. A peculiar arrangment and possibly one that cost him his life. Yesterday, as he was leaving his mother’s house, his car was stopped and he was fatally shot by three men.
It was an execution with a message: tolerance of minorities will have severe consequences.
Our correspondent has just visted the little house in Islamabad. Unlike many of the foreign journalists who’ve come calling, she was allowed in. The experience shook her to the core. “It’s what Pakistan should be, and could be” she said with a break in her voice.
The house was full of people of every religion and class. The speaker of the house, Fahmida Mirza was there, amongst other parliamentarians. There were ordinary people, relatives, and people from the minorities who knew they’d lost something very precious - a champion.
Bhatti’s mother is prostrate with grief managing only to sit up to recieve the occasional embrace of a well wisher. A Sikkh man prayed close to her, arms outstretched and hands closed in worship, stopping once to touch the old lady’s knee in shared sorrow. Hindus, Christians, Mulsims had all come to pay their respects, all of them praying to their respective gods for the soul of a man who was obviously loved.
When Bhatti took the oath of office, two years ago, he said he was taking this job for the sake of the “oppressed, down-trodden and marginalized” of Pakistan. He added that he has dedicated his life to “struggle for human equality, social justice, religious freedom, and to uplift and empower the religious minorities’ communities.” It wasn’t just rhetoric.
According to the people who knew him, he was a serious and studious young man and so firm in his religious belief that he decided not to marry so he could dedicate his life to the people who needed his help the most.
Pakistan has always had an ambivalent stance towards his minorities. Jinnah’s dream of a tolerant Pakistan was - well tolerated, if not exemplified in the country. And Hindus, Sikkhs and Christians who remained in Pakistan since Partition lived with their heads down, doing as little as possible to attract the attention of the Muslim majority.
But the rise in fundamentalism in the region has taken a deadly toll in recent months, and this latest killing will no doubt be effective in silencing what’s left of the dwindling number of moderate voices in the country.
Pakistan’s vicious fundamentalists are stripping their nation’s soul, bit by bloody bit. God help them.
