The Sri Lankan factory manager, Priantha Kumar Diyawadanage, beaten to death by a mob comprising workers from his own factory was caused by his having ordered the removal of some Tehrik e Labbaik Pakistan posters from the workplace prior to the arrival of an EU inspection team. The Sialkot police have booked hundreds for the crime, acting under great pressure from the federal government, which wants the killers caught because of the victim being a foreigner, and the killing involving an issue which interests the EU. That Sri Lanka is a friendly country which Pakistan would like to cultivate, and that the EU is about to consider Pakistan GSP-Plus status, are perhaps prime considerations for the government, but the malaise revealed is domestic, and those are the real reasons why the perpetrators should be given punishment, which would deter future violators of the law.
Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the affair is what the late Mr Diyawadanage is accused of: forcibly removing TLP posters. If the posters did include matter which could not be destroyed wantonly, then there must be a strict prohibition, and one that is enforced, on any organization, political, commercial, preventing its stickers being removed from display because some sacred texts are included. An even greater nightmare arises when looking at digital platforms and considering how they are to be policed. Another issue that will arise is the pusillanimity shown by the justice system. In particular, judges in blasphemy cases, and defence lawyers, are vulnerable, because an accusation is presumed to be guilt. However, as shown by the trial and subsequent execution of Mumtaz Qadri, the policeman who killed Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in 2011, the guilty can be punished.
The basic problem seems to be that those punishing so-called blasphemers seem to be counting on a support network of highly placed sympathizers to protect them. Blasphemy is indeed a touch-button issue, but the reaction of the state must be measured, even calculated. The bottom line should be that it has a monopoly on force, and that includes even those accused of blasphemy. That the TLP has moved from protesting blasphemy, to having people killed for removing its posters, should give pause to those who patronized it. Forces may have been unleashed over which they have no control.
