Crying wolf are we?

Fierce fighting continues in the streets of Mingora. The Pakistan army is battling the Taliban , the enemy from with in. The familiar notorious history of the Taliban needs no repetition. Irrespective of the past the military woes to swipe the Talibans and end the regime. To a lay man all this means a possible ray of hope for peace.

According to the UNHCR about 2.5 million people have been displaced from the war zone. These people are now living in tents dependent on aid from national and international sources. Among these people are children, elderly, women and men. Among many of them are pregnant women and patients in need of severe medical attention. Humanitarians from around the world are working towards rehabilitation of these individuals. Despite constant efforts many are still in need of dire help. Around 80% people are known to be unregistered which makes them void to any kind of relief good. Volunteers have grouped up on self help basis providing relief for the inaccessible. Donation pleas are being highlighted while fears of more influx of people rises. Hashim khan is a 27 year old cancer patient lying in a camp based in a school in Peshawar. Hashim has been on chemotherapy for 2 months and requires immediate medical attention. He is among the many others who await for help before death. The stories of many other victims are still unheard. It will not be far fetched to assume that many horrors remain bottled up among these victims of war.

Amid the crisis, on the 23rd of May’09 a protest was held at superhighway Karachi. Political workers gathered holding party flags and flaunting play cards. The spokesperson blatantly addressed the media with their ‘demands’. Were they protesting against the Governments negligence? Or for the failure of relief good reaching the unregistered? Or was it a voice against the severe curfew timings which isn’t allowing the influx of trapped civilians. No. An unfortunate disclosure brings us to the actual demand from these people. A protest held against the influx of victims of swat war in to Karachi. According to the much enlightened spokesman from Jiyay Sindh the influx of the displaced is a ‘conspiracy’ against those residing in Sindh. A conspiracy to turn them in to a ‘minority’ .Their demand was the removal of any such camps within and hour or a forced removal otherwise. Pity me but I couldn’t help being disgusted by the political circus. While our country bleeds and our assets destroyed we still cant stop crying wolf. The minority phobia shall prevail in Karachi and drown the least bit of humanity with it. As much as I would like those who lie homeless to be able to return back home I still don’t hold the courage to paint my fears over the pleas of those most effected by the ongoing military operation.

The talibans,India,America or Israel will never be able to harm us because indifference has already marked us dead. Indifference to each other’s pain. The growing fetish for conspiracy that has marred humanity among us. We need no Taliban’s for the barbarousness is inborn among many. This Sir is the sad face of our society and there we are fetching for foreign hands trying to destabilize our Country. No one needs to destabilize us while we struggle to paint our own pictures of Unity and democracy. Hashim and many others will perhaps have to wait till some of us fight our inferiority complexes and learn to look at the larger picture. For all those who think differently please try and create enough resources for these people so that they don’t need to flee yet again. Make enough donations that the camps can be established in places of convenience. Run pleas for donations with the same force you use to terrorize people. Let’s not halt the ways of humanity and snap out of our self centered lives. Let not the political circus overlook the fact that the world’s second largest humanitarian crisis has hit home. Let their be peace Just this once !