By shuffling the pages of history one comes across only few events and
personages which can perfectly be matched. Socretes, Mansur and Mashal Khan are
those few who not only claimed to have reached the truth, and transcended the
visible limits, but stood their ground and proved at the cost of their lives that
they had the courage of their conviction. Socretes was accused of polluting the
minds of the youth, and was therefore asked by the assembly either to repent or
get perished forever; he never compromised his stance and opted for the latter
by swallowing the cup of ‘truth’. Mansur al-Hallaj another
man, who made his marks on history, embraced death, but did not backed out. His
stance was short and epigrammatic, "I am the Truth”. Mashal Khan is a recent
such example, but yet different from his predecessors. First unlike Socretes
and Mansur who were grow up men, Mashal was a young boy yet a student of university
. Their manner of death too was different from that of Mashal, Socretes was put
to death by public, and Mansur by the powerful class of the time, whereas Mashal
Khan was killed by his own university fellows, those who were supposed to learn
and disseminate their knowledge for serving the humanity. Mashal’s stance can
be summed up by a striking quote from his Facebook posts: “Either grant me the bliss of the ignorant or give me the strength to bear the knowledge”
Mashal is dead! The reason given for justifying his death by the murders
was simple, they thought that they were better Muslims than Mashal Khan and therefore
were deservedly entitled to kill him. A reign of fear and regime of terror was created;
no one could openly question the action, nor could openly express sympathy with
Mashal’s family. Some even celebrated the death; his own fellows congratulated
one another. The news spread in all directions, Mullah in his mosque, those who
were busy gambling, running tavern, pimps outside and customers inside the
brothels, smugglers in their dealings, hoarder in their stores, and criminals
even on the gallows heaved a sigh of relief that someone has been killed who
was not as good a Muslim as they were.
Mashal Khan was held guilty, his family an outcast, Pakhtunwali was
discarded, which required the villagers to gather, to mourn, performs the rites
and burry Mashal Khan. Iqbal Lala was breaking inside and totally confused by
the response of his village mates. -“I have never missed the social gatherings
of my village, neither condolence or wedding wherever I was required by the
laws of Pakhtonwli, why the villagers hesitate to come to me” he would have
thought. The funeral prayer should not be
performed, and no one should participate in the rites, otherwise they too will
be considered as Muslim of a lower rank. –a commandment came. What Hamza had told the Pashton people was not
paid heed to, what Bacha Khan spent 37 years of his precious life behind the
bars for? was forgotten, what made Ghani Khan mad was not thought. When
darkness spread all around, terror reigned supreme, reasons suspended. Khushal
Khan reborn, appeared on the scene, this time not with his sword but with a
gun, he for the time being suspended Bacha Khan’s Philosophy of non-violence,
and perhaps adhered to the maxim, “sometimes you have to pick the gun up, to
put the gun down”.
Shereen Yar Yousafzai, the man came on the occasion stood by Iqbal Lala
and assured him of his support, he gathered other likeminded people, and openly said that Mashal is our
flesh, our child, our brother both our religion and Pakhtunwali require us to perform
his rites. He started convincing the
villagers, and had hardly won support of few people when people came (perhaps
armed) to spoil the funeral. one could not help weeping when listening to
Shereen Yar’s interview with Diwa Radio. The magnitude of his helplessness was
immeasurable. If he could confront the opponent (the better Mulisms), the
people already convinced by him would certainly leave the site and refuse to
participate in the rites and panic would take place. If he ignored them, their
number might increase and people would feel threatened to come there. But the in
face of such challenging situations he paved the way for smooth performance of Mashal’s
funeral. He tasked his fellows to stand on guard around the area so that some
Muslims many not attack the funeral of another Muslim, and finally it was done
peacefully.
Fashion statements followed from the officials, security agencies sprung
into actions, investigations were ordered, high profile public and political figures
started visiting Mashal’s home, everyone felt Mashal was innocent, justice was demanded
by all for Mashal, but Mashal was no more.
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