Huzaima Bukhari
“Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it”—J.M. Barrie
Among many things that are required to make one’s dreams come true the concept of sacrifice is a vital element. Hardly anyone can claim that like Cinderella, their world took a positive twist overnight and their fortunes shone on them with full power. It is known that a large majority of persons who have won a lottery or made millions in some game shows may have experienced temporary boost but very soon revert to their original positions. Very few are able to maintain their balance on attaining a windfall and yet many more have to really struggle hard in order to attain their goals.
Stories about people rising from rags to riches are plentiful but the underlying struggles are usually overlooked that remain part of the forgotten past. In the same way sacrifices made, also take a back seat when the emerging results are based on success and high achievements. Partition of the Indian sub-continent witnessed sacrifices beyond human imagination and need not be reiterated here because now there are clearly identifiable nations whose objectives have changed but one aspect remains constant—human sacrifices.
When ordinary developments like building roads. houses and bridges take their toll of financial and sometimes human sacrifices then why should zealous men who want to overpower people, nations and countries be deprived from these “magnificent offerings” that are fundamental to their ambitious plans. Does it matter that in their fervour to achieve victory, innocent men, women and even children would be butchered at the hands of opponents? Certainly not. After all, it is part of the collateral damage over which no one has any control, with the dead and brutalized saluted for their sacrifices for the demigods of this earth who gratefully accept these ‘gifts’ from the wretched and hapless.
According to historical data, human sacrifice has been an essential characteristic of ancient and medieval societies undergoing social changes or where they were vulnerable to external threats requiring appeasement of divinity to overcome these impediments. Archeological evidences prove that both animals and humans were killed at the altar for different reasons.
Whether Egyptians, Mayans, Mesopotamians, Romans and even Scandinavians, many considered human sacrifice as a normal procedure. To this day, scholars are still trying to find reasons in various cultures. However, it goes without saying that some sacrificial humans readily surrendered themselves in the hope of bringing betterment for their people, preventing disasters or merely connecting with the divine.
With the rise of organized religions this practice gradually declined as it received condemnation from religious and philosophical leaders. Rebuked for its barbarity, superstitious understandings and magical impact, modern civilizations declared human sacrifice as murder with its proponents to be tried and punished as criminals in courts. Globally, there is a general perception that synchronizes with this idea therefore wherever there is such an occurrence, it is highly criticized. As this is a decided matter, no one can deny that human sacrifice is in fact, a most inhuman act.
Having said this, attention is drawn to systematic loss of lives because of poor statesmanship, trade competitions, belligerent policies, propagation of false ideologies, provocation by warmongers and obstinacy in refusing to negotiate with adversaries in a civilized manner. No doubt, human sacrifice of yesteryears is no longer a regular custom because that meant killing one person at a time but now it has been replaced by mass sacrifices in the form of suicide bombings targeting the innocent, border skirmishes causing mutilation of human bodies, proxy wars, genocides in Africa and the Middle East.
Pakistan too is going through human sacrificial periods where people are being hurled over the precipice of life for the sake of egoistic temperament of a few who are in no mood to take on board those unhappy souls who want to discuss but are being denied this privilege on account of being declared traitors. Consequently, we have seen specifically targeted attacks not only on military units but also on their children. These assaults are symptoms of a serious disease but in our quest for treating them superficially, we are failing to diagnose the real problem.
We had yet not recovered from the Peshawar Army Public School (APS) tragedy in 2014 when 150 lives were sacrificed that another gruesome ambush took place in Khuzdar in May 2025 on an APS school bus transporting 53 persons including 38 students in which although eight got killed but the remaining were wounded perhaps to the extent of eventually being classified as living dead. All this in addition to the many soldiers who were martyred in different terrorist attacks.
Similarly, innocent people across the border, Gaza, Ukraine and other volatile states are being slain, mutilated, raped, rendered homeless and what not, just because a few heads of countries are totally oblivious to these perils and bent upon satisfying their evil objectives. Rather than sitting down to resolve the world’s excruciating problems they are forcing human sacrifices just like their unwise ancient predecessors. One wonders what the United Nations Organisation (UNO) is doing? Has it failed in its functions like the defunct League of Nations? What is the logic in continuing with such a vast and expensive institution if humanity is miserably suffering right under its very nose?
One is also forced to think about why world conscience has fallen in a deep coma. Agreed that there are occasional protests by humanists but still they are unable to awaken the sleeping consciousness of those in whose hands destiny of the suffering is held hostage. If the present leaders of the world recall these words of George W. Bush: “We can’t allow the world’s worst leaders to blackmail, threaten, hold freedom-loving nations hostage with the world’s worst weapons,” then perhaps they would take concrete measures to avert disasters and prevent further human sacrifices.
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The writer, lawyer and author, is an Adjunct Faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), member Advisory Board and Senior Visiting Fellow of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE)