Protester against the Sialkot atrocity. PTI in the sign refers to prime minister Imran Khan's party
Left and human rights activists in Pakistan have taken to the streets to denounce a lynching by the Islamist extreme right.
On 3 December Priyantha Kumara, a Sri Lankan Christian working as a factory manager in the Pakistani city of Sialkot was murdered and his body burned by a mob after he was accused of removing stickers from the fascist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party which included Quranic verses.
Founded in 2015, TLP is an alarming development even in the decades-long context of the growing power of the religious right and far right in Pakistan. It quickly launched major street demonstrations to demand further Islamisation of the Pakistani state, and on the back of them won over 2.2 million votes in the 2018 elections, almost as many as Pakistan’s established and less virulent Islamist radical right. In Pakistan's largest province, Punjab, it became the third strongest party, outpolling the Pakistan People's Party (which got 13% nationally, and was in government until 2013).
Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has vocally condemned the murder of Kumara, and promised to bring those responsible to justice. Given his long record of collaboration with and encouragement of the Islamist far right, including recently TLP, it seems likely his concern is Pakistan’s image with other governments and corporations.
Over the last year, during the Indian farmers’ struggle, we have commented extensively on India’s Hindu right and far right and their mounting war against Muslims, and tried to organise solidarity. The growth of the Islamist far right in Pakistan is a symmetrical phenomenon. Pakistan’s brave left and secularists need solidarity too.
