Missing Persons' Avalanche

Shocking! And unbelievably sad!

The avalanche enveloping the army camp of Gyari, Siachin, is one of the saddest episodes I have witnessed in my life. I was totally speechless when I heard the news. I did not want to do so, but my mind kept imagining how it would have been. It is said that the avalanche hit the army camp around four o’clock in the morning. I thought to myself; perhaps some soldier would have gotten up at that time to say the Fajr prayers. And while he would have been in prayer, he would have heard the howling and eerie sound of the approaching avalanche. I could imagine it because I had heard the sound of an avalanche in a short film presented on GEO TV about avalanches. What would have been the feelings of that soldier in prayers? Or perhaps some soldier would have awakened within his igloo after the avalanche had hit. Perhaps the igloo had not caved in at the moment of the hit and the soldier, unaware of the calamity outside, would have sought to step out as he did so every morning, only to find the igloo entrance blocked! He would have thought, ‘Oh, it is a bit of an ice…!’, but when he pushed against it, he was pushing against an eighty feet high avalanche block! Can you imagine? It is the height of a six-storey building. I feel nostalgia even as I think about it. Imagine that moment for the soldier! Imagine the feeling of suffocation before the actual suffocation began. Imagine his blood running cold at the thought of death. Imagine him thinking of his family at the thought of death. Imagine him, waiting for death…

My heart goes out to the families of these soldiers. I can empathize with their desperation, wistfulness and human helplessness. I can hear the silent screams ‘Somebody, somebody please get my father out from below the avalanche! Somebody, somebody please lift this unbelievable block of avalanche! Oh, is this a terrible nightmare? Where is the technology? Oh no! Is there no technology strong enough to unfold an avalanche this big? …………..God? Where are you? Can you please send someone down here from up there? Oh God, oh God, I do not know who to beg to? Oh Allah, have Mercy…’

And then, embarrassedly, we had to look towards the superior America for help. They sent a team of eighteen to help with the rescue operation. However, today I heard in news that there is no technology yet to deal with this kind of disaster.

Nevertheless, Major General Athar Abbas, spokesperson ISPR, was heard saying, ‘We will do and show all we can do, for we are answerable to the families of these soldiers…’ And, General Ashfaq P. Kayani has said, ‘The hunt will go on till the last soldier is discovered…’ Excellent. These feelings are very honorable.

What would you say if I told you that there is a secret technology in reserve, such that that if it was used, all the near-buried soldiers under the avalanche would immediately become free, free to be back with their families and free to live again?

What would your feelings be for the person who was intentionally not using this secret technology, because another country had issued orders not to? And this person was eating dollars to obey their orders against his own people?

Well, there is a phenomena running within Pakistan (and the entire Muslim world), which is similar to the catastrophic avalanche. This is the phenomena of Missing Persons due to the so-called war-on-terror. Thousands of Muslims are buried under the avalanche of illegal, uninformed and enforced detention. They are in physical, mental and emotional torture just like those soldiers up there. Their families are desperate just like the families of these soldiers. Families of the Siachin soldiers are begging God for mercy, but can you imagine the humiliation of the families of Missing Persons that they have to beg human beings, our own authorities, for mercy?

Rest assured, these families will also go on in their struggle, till the last Missing Person is discovered, for if they are bonded by profession then these people are bonded by blood ties. And if they are answerable to the families of those soldiers…excuse me, but are not our authorities answerable to us citizens as well, who pay taxes and look towards the state for the basic human right of security?

And the secret technology in reserve is none other than Allah’s Mercy in the snow avalanche disaster, while the secret technology in the case of Missing Persons is one simple Executive Order of Release by the Pakistani authorities.

Will the Pakistani authorities use this simple technology to end the misery of Missing Person’s avalanche and invoke Allah’s Mercy for the Siachin disaster, or will we continue to flounder in our blindness and grope for dollars?

My heartache and prayers continues for both, the Missing Persons and their families and the Siachin soldiers and their families, for I am a Muslim whose loyalties lie with Allah and the national interest of Islam and not with any foreign country and some confused, self-deceptive and sinful notion of mutual interests.

Osama bin Laden, Shaheed

It has taken me six months to muster up the courage to write this article, and another six months to publish it. That makes it a full one year.

May 02, 2011: Osama bin Laden was killed on his residential premises in Abbotabad by the American forces.

My heart ran cold when I heard the news. The news was shocking, to say the least, in every aspect. The fact that Osama bin Laden had been living in Abbotabad. The fact that Osama bin Laden had been killed by the American forces. The fact that Osama bin Laden had been alive. The fact that Osama bin Laden was no more.

Who was this Osama bin Laden? Osama bin Laden was of Saudi origin. He belonged to a filthy rich family and lots of brothers and sisters who would go for vacations to Europe. He was a rather shy and sensitive child, and probably that is why he chose the life he did. He must have found it hard to doodle around with a golden spoon in his mouth while the children of the Ummah witnessed the murder of their fathers, the rape of their mothers, their houses being demolished, their facilities being confiscated, their resources being taken over, their independence being enslaved, their religion being scandalized and their identity being wiped out.

Osama bin Laden earned an international recognition when he fought in the front ranks against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan backed by America and front supported by Pakistan. This Afghan Jihad did not belong to Saudi Arab. Osama bin Laden was neither a Pakistani, neither an Afghani and nor an American. So what business did he have in fighting the Afghan Jihad…other than, Islam?

At one time I also got confused about the identity and objectives of Osama bin Laden. One conspiracy theory said that he was actually an American agent, posing as a Mujahid, for every feat of Osama bin Laden gave America more reasons to invade more Muslim countries. However, reading the journalism reports of Saleem Shahzad (after his death) I understood facts from fiction about Osama bin Laden.

We still do not know whether it was really Osama bin Laden or not, killed in the Abbotabad Operation. The interesting thing, however, remains is this; almost all media avenues used the word ‘killed’ for him, and not Shaheed. Benazir Bhutto, Salman Taseer and so many others are entitled to being called Shaheed, but not Osama bin Laden. While, Shaheed is a term specifically coined by Islam for those who die fighting to fortify Islam. Did Benazir Bhutto and Salman Taseer die fighting to fortify Islam? And Osama bin Laden had some other objectives?

As I lay down to sleep that night, it kept disturbing me. The life, priorities and struggle of Osama bin Laden and our political gentry’s past association with him and now slavish celebrations upon his death haunted me. One may differ with his chosen line of action but there could be no second opinion as to the cause and objectives of Osama bin Laden. This was the man who left a life of comfort, riches and luxuries to reside in the cold, barren and rugged mountains of Afghanistan to resist and fight invasion into a Muslim land and raised struggle against all such invasions. Then, why was Osama bin Laden not titled Shaheed?

Yes, of course. To America (now, after Russia had been defeated with the same), Osama bin Laden and the likes of him, are all terrorists. Consequently, we should all obediently pronounce them terrorists as well. We dare not pronounce them anything else for fear of unacceptability among our peers, persecution at the hands of agencies, annoying America, international sanctions and being called terrorist ourselves.

I hate this mental slavery. I hate my cowardice. And I feel fear of Allah’s verse,
"So do not fear people, but fear Me and do not sell my revelations for a petty price. Those who do not judge by the revelations of Allah, are indeed unbelievers." [The Holy Qur~an, [5] Surah Al-Maidah, Excerpt from Verse 44]

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, the author of ‘1492-The Year the World Began’ wrote, “Every hero is somebody else’s villain”. Consequently, every freedom-fighter is somebody else’s terrorist.

Therefore, allow me to say, Osama bin Laden, Shaheed.