There is not much to say about targeted killings in Karachi that has not been said before. Condemnations have been issued, solutions have been suggested, arrests have apparently been made en masse and yet, more than one person is killed on a daily basis. Today was no different, and the city now has another victim to mourn, one that preached a brand of religion that was seen as too tolerant by all those that thrive on violence. Dr. Shakeel Auj was not only a pacifist, but also a scholar, an author of over fifteen books and the editor of Al-Tafseer, an HEC-recognised research journal on Islamic Studies.
Dr. Shakeel Auj had been teaching at Karachi University for the past 19 years and had been the Dean of Islamic Studies since 2012 and was going to be conferred the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the highest civilian award in the country. His message of tolerance and peace was deemed blasphemous by a madrassa in Karachi, and a fatwa was issued against him, spread through SMS, to make his death warrant public. He openly stood against the sectarian killings that have become part and parcel of life in Karachi, and for that he was seen as the threat to the promotion of extremist ideology. The murder of prominent scholars such as Dr. Auj is a direct strike against the ideology of the country, to manipulate what people think by removing the voice of sanity from religious discourse. Attempts are made to convince the people that moderates betray what the country and religion stand for. Dr. Auj was one of the few people left in this country that dared to speak against the Shia killings that have furthered the fissures and cracks in society.
Reportedly, over 2000 people have been in related killings in the last one-year. Target killers still run amok, killing as they please. Every now and then, the government releases some random number of arrests supposedly made but so far not a single trial has been carried out against any of the suspects. The police announced that a probe has been launched to investigate the murder of Dr. Auj as well. But the reasons for his murder are obvious for anyone who wishes to see them. Unless the government decides to protect the people that stand to protect Pakistan and its citizens against the real enemy, one that morphs Pakistan’s ideology to create chaos, more national heroes will be killed, until there is no one left to defend what is right.