Civil society members express concern over 'shutdown' of exhibit on Rao Anwar at Karachi Biennale
An installation titled 'Killing Fields of Karachi' by artist Adeela Suleman displayed at Karachi's iconic Frere Hall as part of the Karachi Biennale 2019 was "forcibly shut down" on Sunday, allegedly by law enforcement agencies.
The lower hall of the building, where part of the exhibit was displayed, has been sealed, reliable sources confirmed to Dawn.com.
A press conference was held by lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir and other members of the civil society to speak about the taking down of the display.
Nasir said that part of the exhibit was a video installation which showed Naqeebullah Mehsud's father and the scene where Naqeebullah was killed.
Naqeebullah Mehsud — an aspiring model and shopkeeper from South Waziristan — and others were killed in a fake police encounter, led by former SSP Malir Rao Anwar, in Karachi in 2018.
"You all must have seen pillars installed here which symbolise Karachi's bloody history — the 444 murders which were committed between 2011 and 2018 by Rao Anwar. This is not a matter of dispute. This is a fact which is part of police record," said Nasir at Sunday's press conference.
"There are graves here marking the deaths and there was a video projection which contained visuals of Naqeebullah's father, and visuals of the place where Naqeebullah and three others were murdered.
"At 11 in the morning, some people came here who introduced themselves as belonging to sensitive organisations and they said this room should be closed and put under a lock, otherwise all the materials, laptops, projectors, paintings, will be destroyed."
Nasir alleged that the Frere Hall staff was threatened and the guard was sent away by the men who had stormed the venue.
Artist Adeela Suleman also addressed the conference to speak about her exhibit's closure.
"My aim was just to tell a story. I was, in fact, repeating an event which took place a year earlier. It [the display] contained no such thing which was not already part of general public knowledge," she said, visibly upset.
"If artists can not express themselves in their own way, then I really can't say how we will ever have any creation of art and who we will have to take permission from."
Dawn.com has reached out to the organisers for a comment on the matter. No law enforcement official has yet commented on the issue.
Press conference interrupted
The press briefing was also "disrupted" by "unknown men who threw away mics of media and shamelessly tried to censor us", said Nasir in a Twitter post.
A video snippet from the press conference shows Nasir being interrupted by a man who later introduced himself as DG (director general) Parks.
"Go do whatever you want to do outside of here," said the man.
At this, Nasir refused to budge. "I will not go from here. You have no authority to tell me to," he said.
After some more hot words were exchanged, the man warned Nasir to "not force him [to take action]" to which Nasir replied: "Please, sir. You are a nobody."
"I am the DG Parks," said the man.
Nasir said that as the DG Parks, the fundamental job of the man — who did not name himself upon Nasir's request — is to "conduct an inquiry into the Rs2 billion corruption" of his predecessor.
"You should be ashamed," said Nasir, adding that instead of conducting an inquiry into his own department, the man was interferring with the press conference.
Social media calls attention to closure
The closure of the display gained traction on social media, with several Twitter users also reporting on the matter.
Journalist Mubashir Zaidi, who was among the first to bring attention to the incident, said law enforcement personnel were "raiding Karachi Biennale at Frere Hall [...] to stop and remove Adeela Suleman’s artistic production 'Killing fields of Karachi' which depicts the story of the 444 killings by Rao Anwar".
"Trucks & men have descended all over Frere Hall. The lower hall has been sealed," he said in a post on Twitter at around 1:15pm.
Rights activist Nazish Brohi said that the "video installation" had been sealed by "security agencies".
"Killings aren't the issue, depiction is," she remarked over the development.
Professor of Sociology at Lahore Institute of Management Sciences (LUMS) Nida Kirmani, too, took to Twitter to share photos of the installation "as an act of solidarity" with the artist and "resistance" against its "shutting down by LEAs".
The title of the installation — 'Killing Fields of Karachi' — is similar to that of a Dawn investigative report titled 'Dawn Investigations: Rao Anwar and the killing fields of Karachi' published in March, which explored the kind of law-enforcement system that accommodates and protects cops like Rao Anwar.
"Until Naqeebullah’s murder, Sindh’s so-called encounter specialist had not faced any inquiry over the number of encounter killings to his ‘credit’. Not a single inquiry — despite having slain at least 444 people between 2011 and 2018, according to the police’s own records. Not a single policeman was even injured, let alone killed, during the 745 encounters," the report had stated.