Art meets life in battle for young minds

Pakistan has been battling Islamic extremists for more than a decade, but despite $30 billion in US aid and an American drone campaign, the country still hosts powerful armed groups that have killed tens of thousands of people. A growing number of civil society initiatives are aimed at what many see as the source of the problem - indoctrination of youth.

In the southern city of Karachi, friends of the late Sabeen Mahmud, an activist gunned down in April because of her liberal views, have assembled 300 artists to paint over violent graffiti.

The group says it has created some 2,000 murals depicting historic buildings and nature scenes.

"If you read hatred all the time, it is leaving a mark, especially on young minds," said artist Adeela Suleman.

At another level, a private group has started to distribute a three-part comic book, The Guardian, in Pakistani schools to help combat extremism. The author, 31-year-old Gauher Aftab, says it was inspired by his own experience of nearly joining militants fighting in Kashmir as a teenager.

In the late 1990s, Aftab attended the elite Aitchison College, in Lahore. A former student, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, became a well-known jihadi and was revered as a cult hero. He would go on to kidnap and kill Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

Aftab says he was brainwashed at the college by his religious studies instructor, a veteran of Afghanistan's civil war, who convinced him to join militants fighting India in the disputed region of Kashmir.

He had worked out a plan with his teacher to travel to Kashmir after the school year ended. But two days before he was due to depart, his parents showed up unannounced because of a death in his family.

After three months at home, he reconsidered the decision. He eventually graduated top of his class and went on to attend Knox College, a liberal arts school in Illinois.

Aftab works with a group called CFXcomics, which aims to counter extremist propaganda. His comic book has been translated into Urdu by Pakistani playwright, Amjad Islam Amjad.

(China Daily 07/02/2015 page10)