‘CODEPINK’: Pakistan’s Muridke Blueprint Of Regime That Has Learned To Trade Blood For Approval | World News

ISLAMABAD: The Muridke massacre, which took place over three weeks ago, has already fallen silent, like all other atrocities in Pakistan’s recent history. But according to one report, this is the plan of a regime that has not only betrayed its people but has also learned to trade blood for approval by incorporating repression into its foreign policy.

There is no independent investigation, no accountability and no outrage; It’s just another failure on the national radar buried under state propaganda and foreign policy theatrics. Umer Azad, a CODEPINK and Palestine Youth Movement (PYM) volunteer and software engineer, wrote in a report on CODEPINK that the attack on Muridke was not a spontaneous conflict but a premeditated large-scale operation.

“According to DropSite News, protesters from Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had gathered to oppose Pakistan’s potential normalization with Israel and show solidarity with Gaza. According to Dawn, more than 10,000 law enforcement officers participated in a ‘cordon and search operation’ in Muridke, and Border Corps and Pakistan Rangers arrived on a special train from Rawalpindi. Law enforcement used surveillance in preparation for the operation While trenches were dug along main roads for the purpose, eyewitnesses and social media images documented intense gunfire and chaos, resulting in many deaths and injuries.

Similar scenes were witnessed in Pakistan in 2024 when thousands of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters gathered to protest the imprisonment of party founder Imran Khan. In response to the protests, Pakistani authorities imposed a nationwide communications blackout, leaving dozens dead, hundreds injured, and thousands detained.

Together, these two incidents demonstrate a pattern that can no longer be seen as “excessive force” but as “systematic state violence: deliberate, rehearsed and rewarded,” according to the report. In Muridke’s case, the reward came immediately; because reports emerged within days claiming that Pakistan’s military establishment was in advanced talks with the US and Israel, through the CIA and Mossad, to deploy up to 20,000 Pakistani troops in Gaza as part of a so-called peacekeeping initiative.

A report in CODEPINK said: “In this context, the Muridke massacre looks less like a domestic crackdown and more like a show of skill, a live-fire performance aimed at showing Washington and Tel Aviv how effectively Pakistan’s generals can suppress dissent, whether in Punjab or Palestine. This is now the cost of Pakistan’s bid for Western approval: blood for legitimacy. A regime that shoots its citizens for flying the Palestinian flag is now marketing itself as a stabilizing force. In Gaza “The same commanders who rained bullets on protesters in Muridke will soon wear their peacekeeping badges and be hailed abroad as partners in regional security.”

According to the report, over the past three years, the Pakistani military has overthrown an elected government, imprisoned political opponents including Imran Khan on clearly trumped-up charges, conducted an election marred by widespread election fraud as confirmed by the Commonwealth Observer Group, and persecuted journalists and forced many into exile. The independence of the judiciary was stripped and people regularly faced threats from state actors while being tried in military courts in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

A report published in CODEPINK said: “Muridke is the blueprint of a regime that has learned to trade blood for approval. The current regime has not only betrayed its people, but has institutionalized repression as a tool of foreign policy. The generals have discovered that the road to Washington and Tel Aviv lies through the corpses of their own citizens. In Muridke, they offered the ultimate demonstration of how quickly and ruthlessly dissent can be crushed in the name of order.”