10/1/1435 a day when Rawalpindi bled and burnt

15/11/13 or on Islamic calendar 10/1/1435 a black day for my dear mother land, my beloved country Pakistan. An annual occurrence when a religious minority in our country shias take out their procession mourning the death of Hazrat Imam Hussain 

It’s not just in Pakistan but all through the world wherever shias are in some strength they do take out the processions.

Though raison d'etre of Pakistan was a country where Muslims could practice their faith freely not be oppressed or oppress any one. Pakistan was founded as a bouquet of different cultures religions and ethnicities. There were Hindus, Parsis, Chirstians, Ahamdis, Bengalis, Pakhtoons, Sindhis, Balochis Punjabis, Sunnis, Shias etc

Out great thinkers of time gonebye  knew that strength lies in unity  Baba Bulleh shah great sufi poet said

Masjid dha de, mandir dha de, dha de jo kucch dainda 
Par kisi da dil na dhain, Rab dilan vich rehnda.. 

Tear down the mosque and the temple; break everything in sight 
But do not break a person's heart, it is there that God resides

Allama Iqbal the one who dreamt up Pakistan in his writings and declared as poet of the nation wrote

Eik ho muslims haram ki pasbani keliye

Neel ke sahil l ke tab khake kashghar

May the Muslims unite in watching over the Kaaba,

From the banks of the Nile to the deserts of Kashghar

Stories about that incident are different an account that can be somewhat agreed upon is:

“while the processions was passing through a densely populated area Raja bazar of Rawalpindi Punjab Pakistan, Imam masjid ( a person who addresses the gathering during Friday prayers & lead the prayers too) used loud speakers to condemn the act of procession and beliefs of the Shia community. Procession goers also tried to use loudspeakers and war of words ensued. Leaders of procession disconnected electricity. Then it started from stone throwing and then all hell broke loose. People snatched weapons from security personnel, who abandoned their posts, people were killed & children slaughtered”

Only Allah knows which side suffered more casualties or which side was more responsible, but the thing is all those died and injured were Pakistanis, my countrymen. Shops that were burnt damaged my dear country

Conspiracy theorists say that there were outside men who incited the incident. It’s a continuing though from day one that those destroy Pakistan must be from outside black sheeps we people of Pakistan are pure pristine innocent and we don’t do a cent of damage. But to an extent yes if we have fissures between ourselves, our enemies will make  hole out of those fissures

I am not saying which side is wrong and which side is right, but taken as a whole this incident is wrong.

From day one we as a nation have been alienating minorities it started from Parsis, Hindus Christians then to Bengalis. When all three were successfully eliminated and forced to hide and feel separate from rest of us we moved on to Ahmedis, and if this continues it would be Shias and only Allah knows can even eventually come to clashes between Brelevi Deobandi, ahle hades etc.

A healthy body is that in which all organs work in sync. Even in management we have concept of strategic fit i.e. develop organizational goals, then align every one to those goals so that their personnel goals benefit the nations. This is called integration of work force.

What we have instead is disintegration, let’s blame our leaders after wards, because we the masses can give them power and take power away from them but first we have to be united on a single purpose.

Divided we have been conquered, destroyed, ransacked, and what we do further widen the fissures. Some very dear friends of mine said “Ban the processions” remember how you would feel if something you consider a standard of devotion and a holy celebration banned. How would it help Pakistan? It would take away from us a large percent of population, workforce that should be integrated in to the nation and working towards advancing this dear mother land of ours

So people remember, Americans, Indians & corrupt leaders come afterwards if we want a positive change for our contrary we must start with the man in the mirror, change ourselves and then we can influence people around us. Fear mongering is not the way forward but friendship unity and brotherhood is.