What was delivered to Pakistanis today was not just the dead body of a journalist, but the proverbial “horse’s head” (as in The Godfather) – a promise to impose censorship “by all means necessary.”
But it is also the most chilling of messaging for all others. Murder, as an article in Dawn pointed out, is “the severest form of censorship” on he who is murdered. That this chill is exactly what his murderers wanted to deliver. Let us not doubt for a moment that this was a calculated act. But the chill that ran down the spine of all Pakistanis was also real. Of course, nothing can compare to the fatal, ultimate and irreversible wounds that were inflicted on Saleem Shahzad. The message to Pakistanis – and not just journalists, but all who may dare to ‘speak up’ – was equally cold and bloody and brutal. The message to Saleem Shahzad was cold and bloody and brutal. But the calculated and staged ‘delivery’ of his murdered body was meant to do more than just silence a journalist. Those who brutally murdered journalist, and author of the recent book Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Syed Saleem Shahzad clearly wanted to silence him. And that is no accident.Īfraid and unsafe is exactly how the butchers who tortured and then murdered Syed Saleem Shahzad want us to feel. Today they are feeling even more unsafe and afraid. Pakistanis have gotten used to feeling unsafe and afraid.
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