By Justice Markandey Katju
Pakistan army officers, please realize what your army chief and corps commanders are doing. Under the pretext of punishing the culprits in the 9th May violence ( which appears to be largely stage managed and scripted, like the Reichstag fire in Nazi Germany in February, 1933 ) a reign of terror has been unleashed on the Pakistani people, thousands arrested, after breaking into their houses and dragging them out, many tortured and some even killed or ‘disappeared’ ( like Imran Riaz Khan ), the media largely muzzled, military tribunals set up to dispense kangaroo justice, the Supreme Court orders for holding elections and the Constitution flagrantly flouted, and all kinds of atrocities committed on the people.
Presently the people of Pakistan are largely silent out of fear, but this will not be for long. Historical experience shows that whenever there was oppression there was resistance, as it happened in England in the reign of King Charles I, in France in 1789, in Russia in 1917, in Afghanistan when the Russians invaded it, or in Vietnam. Soon the 240 million people of Pakistan will start fighting back, and then you and your families be at the receiving end
An army can fight another army, it cannot fight the masses. A tiger can kill a prey, it cannot kill a swarm of mosquitoes. Soon the mosquitoes will start biting you, and you and your families will get sting after sting from the people and not allowed to sleep.
You may think you are safe in your barracks ( though even there you will not be ), but you all would be having wives, children, parents and other relatives. Will they be safe from the people’s anger and retribution ?
So stop this repression before it is too late. Tell your superiors that this mad reign of terror against the people cannot go on and must stop
