Tag: Khurram Zaki

Khurram Zaki yesterday on Facebook:

Sadiq Khan is not a Pakistani. He is a Britisher. Credit for his rise and success goes to his own hard work and the equal opportunity quality of the British system. Pakistan and Islam have played no role in his meteoric rise. And he has proved for all British Muslims and Brits of other ethnicities that anyone who blames that system as biased and discriminatory that they are lazy and liars.

I am celebrating the greatness of Western Secular Democracy. In this day and age of Takfiri Deobandi/Wahabi terrorism and Islamophobia, London has risen above discrimination and bigotry and emerged as great centre of human civilisation setting a great example for the world. Can we ever elect an Ahmadi or Hindu or Christian PM? Forget that, we have deprived all legal powers and discretions of a democratically elected Mayor of the third largest city in the world (Karachi) on the basis of ethnicity.

And it’s so stupid and shameful of us Pakistanis that we run down humiliate our own successes like Malala and Sharmeen.

He was murdered hours after posting that.

Let Us Build Pakistan’s statement on the murder of Khurram Zaki:

We offer our condolences to Pakistani nation on the martyrdom of LUBP blog’s editor and leading human rights activist Khurram Zaki. After Shaheed Irfan Khudi Ali of Quetta, Shaheed Khurram Zaki is the second LUBP editorial team member who has been target killed by Takfiri Deobandi militants.

For the last one year, Shaheed Khurram Zaki was a target of a systematic hate campaign organized by Deobandi fanatic, Shamsuddin Amjad of the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan in collaboration with the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP aka ASWJ/LeJ).

In particular, hateful and violence inciting posters against Shaheed Khurram Zaki had been published recently by the Mashal Facebook page run by Shamsuddin Amjad, Asad Wasif and a few other pro-Taliban fanatics of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Shaheed Kurram Zaki was a bigger journalist and rights activist with more valuable credentials and contributions than those in mainstream media or NGOs who remain silent on or obfuscate systematic target killing of Shia Muslims, Sunni Sufis Muslims, Christians and other communities in Pakistan at the hands of Takfiri Deobandi militants.

I wish they wouldn’t use that word “Takfiri” – that’s just more of the same thing. I get why they want to say that’s not the right way to do Islam, but that word is toxic.

Khurram Zaki took a principled and courageous stance against the notorious Lal Masjid Deobandi cleric, Abdul Aziz, when the latter refused to condemn the same Taliban/ASWJ terrorists who killed 150 school children in Peshawar. Zaki’s bold and unwavering stance against this cleric brought him to the attention of the Takfiri Deobandi nexus which is also responsible for 100% of suicide bombings in Pakistan.

In boldly highlighting and supporting the rights of Sunni Barelvis, Shias, Sufis, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians, his contribution as citizen journalism was much bigger than all journalists combined in Pakistan. His death is the grim reminder that whoever raises voice against Taliban, ASWJ/LeJ and Jamaat-e-Islami Deobandi mafia in Pakistan will not be spared. And when they have to murder, they never fail.

In keeping with the legacy of Shaheed Khurram Zaki, LUBP will not bow down to Takfiri Deobandi terrorism. We will continue to work for greater Sunni-Shia unity and support all operations against the TTP, ASWJ/LeJ and other terrorists. We will continue to highlight and condemn Shia genocide and target killings of Sunni Sufis, Christians and other communities in Pakistan at the hands of Deobandi militants.

There it is again, twice. That’s not the right way to liberal.

Khurram Zaki’s martyrdom is the result of a sustained campaign against not only LUBP but all those Pakistanis like Irfan Khudi Ali and Sabeen Mahmud who spoke the truth. We have no doubt that his target killing has been engineered by and is the result of a systematic hate campaign by Shamsuddin Amjad of Jamaat-e-Islami. We remind Shamsuddin Amjad that all lawful means will be used to ensure that he is held to account for this murder.

To honour and preserve the memory of our dearly departed colleague, LUBP is setting up the Shaheed Khurram Zaki Trust to ensure the well being of family members and children of deceased activists killed by Takfiri Deobandi terrorists regardless of their sect or faith background.

Again with the “Takfiri.” Please don’t. All the condolences, and solidarity, but please don’t do that.

A prominent journalist and human rights activist has been murdered in Karachi.

[Khurram Zaki] was an editor of the website Let us Build Pakistan, which condemns sectarianism and is seen as promoting democratic and progressive values.

The spokesman for a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban has said they were behind the shooting.

He said they killed him because of his recent campaign against a cleric of the Red Mosque in Islamabad.

Mr Zaki and other campaigners had filed a court case charging Abdul Aziz with incitement to hatred and violence against the Shia minority.

The case was brought in response to the cleric’s refusal to condemn attacks such as that on a school in Peshawar in 2014 in which 152 people, most of them schoolchildren, were killed.

Human rights activists don’t murder people, because they’re human rights activists. Murderous theocrats do murder people, because they’re murderous theocrats. They win and we lose.

Two other people were badly wounded in the Karachi attack, on Saturday night – a friend who Mr Zaki was dining with and a bystander.

Staff at the website paid tribute to their murdered colleague, and vowed to continue to stand up to militant groups.

Their statement said his contribution as a citizen journalist in supporting the rights of minority groups was “much bigger than [that of] all journalists combined in Pakistan”.

“His death is the grim reminder that whoever raises voice against Taliban [and other militant groups] in Pakistan will not be spared. And when they have to murder, they never fail.”

They win, and we lose.

H/t Helene