Pakistan has long claimed to be the self-proclaimed “defender of the Muslim Ummah", repeatedly thumping its chest about solidarity with Palestine and condemning Israeli aggression. Yet, when ordinary citizens attempted to demonstrate that solidarity on the streets of Lahore, they were met not with support, but with batons, arrests, and a chilling show of state repression. The crackdown on a peaceful pro-Palestine rally ordered by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government and executed by General Asim Munir’s military-backed establishment has torn away the mask of hypocrisy that Islamabad has worn for decades.

A Government That Fears Its Own People

The rally in Lahore was not an armed insurgency, nor a violent protest. It was a peaceful demonstration by ordinary citizens, students, activists, and religious groups who came together to express solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza. Yet the government, clearly threatened by the sight of citizens uniting for a cause beyond domestic politics, responded with brute force. Riot police were deployed, protesters were detained, and slogans for Palestinian liberation were met with lathi charges and tear gas.

Such authoritarian overreach exposes a deep........

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