Ideally, everyone should forget about the conflicts based on caste, religion, color, ethnicity, or location and come together to help each other in the time of a pandemic. However, bigotry is deep-rooted in some sections of the society that they can never see a person in misery from other communities as a human being. In a recent incident reported by Naya Daur, a Sunni person refused to donate his blood plasma to a critical Covid patient because the recipient was from the Shia community.
Critical patient denied plasma for being a Shia
According to the reports, a middle-aged man was admitted at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad, after showing symptoms of Covid-19 infection. When his condition turned critical, his family reached out to recovered patients for plasma. Many concerned citizens, including medical students, are trying to connect patients’ families with plasma donors. They approached a recovered patient for plasma donation, But when he learnt the patient requiring plasma is a Shia Muslim, he refused to donate stating that he won’t donate it for a Shia.
https://twitter.com/nailainayat/status/1273283817348886528?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwAnzala Zahra Kazim, a member of a group trying to connect plasma donors with patients, posted on her Facebook account about the incident. She said, ”I’ve come across many absurdities with respect to donors’ approach towards donation, but neither me nor my team had expected a refusal based on faith of the recipient. The reason why I don’t want to name the donor is that my intention wasn’t to bash an individual, but to highlight the intolerant mindset sadly prevalent in our society.”
Her team managed to find another donor for the patient who is now recovering from the infection.
Not an isolated incident of bigotry in Pakistan
This is not the first time Pakistan has shown it’s true colors amid coronavirus pandemic. In March, residents of Karachi’s Delhi colony did not accept ration from an NGO that had members of the Ahmadiyya community. They were forced out of the colony.
https://twitter.com/bilalfqi/status/1243827883971416064?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwIn another incident, an NGO denied food to Pakistani Hindus and Christians in March amid coronavirus pandemic.