by Nasir Jamil

Dr. Mannan Siddiqi, a renowned physician and a US citizen, was a very dear and good friend of mine who completed his residency in medicine at the Franklin Square Hospital here in Baltimore Maryland in  1992. He left United States with his wife and 2 children in order to serve  the under priveleged communities in  rural Pakistan and established an very well equipped Hospital in Mirpurkhas, Sindh Pakistan.

On September 9th he received his ultimate reward for his selfless service to the humanity  by earning martyrdom. He was shot 11 times  at point blank range because he refused to be bullied by the extremists and denounce what he believed in. Inna Lillahi wa inna ilahi rajaoon. The next day another prominent businessman  of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community was martyred in the hometown of newly minted President of Pakistan, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari.

Instead of hiding his face,  the so called "Dr." Amir Liaqat of Geo had  the audacity to take full credit for  these targeted killings. His article published in  Jang was a reflection of how deep the roots of extremism are. And that too in the name of Hadhrat Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) who carrier the title of blessing for the whole universe. Yet, we wonder why the civilized world is getting sick and tired of what was supposed to be the most peaceful religion on the face of the earth called "ISLAM".

This murder is by no means an isolated case of violence against Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. In fact this is the direct result of a well thought out and preplanned conspiracy to sow the seeds to destabilize the recent democratic government of Pakistan after successful riddance of Musharraf. This is a page out of the same old plan that was used to bring Zurfiqar Ali Bhutto to bow down on his knees in front of long beard and knuckle head mullahs in the very early days of his Government . That resulted in  Mr. Bhuttos's hanging  at the hands of a shaved Mullah in the uniform.

Mr. Altaf Hussein, the head of MQM must be praised for his immediate action in not only verbally condemning the hate filled rhetoric of Amir Liaqat on national media but taking action kicking him out of the party. Standing besides the  weak and truthful in this day and age is an act of great courage and nobility especially in the political circus that is on display these days in Pakistan.