Lahores Growing Talibanisation By Raza Rumi August 8, 2011 The recent abuse of police power at Lahores premier hub

of arts is a sad reminder of how culture is under attack from the state and vigilantes alike. The rough han dling of a woman curator at the Nairang Gallery is not an isolated incident. The re is an unfortunate history of attacks on artists and cultural spaces in Pakist an. According to reports, last week a senior police official barged into the gallery and harassed and assaulted a woman, later accusing her of wearing improper clot hes and labelled the gallerys work as fahashi (vulgarity). Eyewitness accounts sugg est that the official, a local SHO, at first picked on a couple and questioned w hy they were sitting together! Later, he barged into a rehearsal of a Bharatanat yam dance performance; and assaulted the female curator of the gallery who asked why the SHO was intruding in the activities of the gallery. Even the staff memb ers who intervened to rescue the young woman were reportedly thrashed. Later, when the well-known architects (who runs the gallery) son inquired about t he misconduct of the police official, he was taken to the local police station t o be hung upside down. He was released later, thankfully without much harm. This i ncident has left a big question mark on whether freedom to run cultural institut ions without the ideological endorsement of the state is possible anymore. Nairang Gallery is the brainchild of the globally acclaimed Nayyar Ali Dada and its ethos runs counter to the Zia eras policies of turning Pakistan into a fundam entalist desert. Nairang hosts weekly meetings of literary giants and thinkers. The space is also used for various study groups and allows for plural, progressi ve debates. In addition, the gallery showcases contemporary art and music. Howev er, all such activities are endangered in times when state-nurtured jihadis have become more powerful than the state and have infiltrated the minds of the polic emen. The late Salmaan Taseers killer, Mumtaz Qadri, is a case is point. A member of a highly trained elite police force, he was abetted by his colleagues in committin g a murder to eliminate a public figure who stood up against the tyranny of blas phemy laws. Unfortunately, the Punjab government is yet to take any concrete ste ps to cleanse the special police force of the bigotry, which has now become a fa ct of life in Pakistan. In recent years, Punjab has witnessed the rise of sectarian and militant outfits , including the Tehreek- i-Taliban Pakistan, who has been appeased on various oc casions by the leadership of the party that rules the province. A recent report entitled Madrassahs fanning radicalism was reportedly forwarded by the Punjab Home Department to the police and civil administration, urging regulation of mainstr eam madrasas to ensure protection of civil society from radicalisation and sectar ian polarisation. Punjab is a haven for sectarian and radical ideologues who have full freedom, and some say protection, to carry on with their hate-business. In this larger context, Nairang Gallery is a threat to purists and fanatics. Pol ice behaviour is also reflective of how state functionaries are either radicalis ed or helpless before the rising tide of Islamism. However, this incident should not be brushed aside or forgotten. Pakistans civil society and progressive voice s in the media should guard the shrinking public spaces and call for a wider ref orm of the police force and should demand a crackdown on extremist outfits which are busy infiltrating the civil and military institutions. Pakistan will cease to exist if its pluralism and secular traditions are further eroded.

The writer is consulting editor, The Friday Times Source: The Express Tribune, Lahore