LAHORE: Just when he appeared to be fading from popular memory after proving to be a smashing hit in the summers of 2014, Shahid Aziz alias Gullu Butt has found a new objective in life. He is out to champion the cause of the Rohingya Muslims being persecuted in Myanmar.

A few months after his release from the Kot Lakhpat Jail, the infamous Gullu Butt has approached the residents in and around Kotha Pind flats in Faisal Town as part of a revival of his meaningful social activities. He has put up banners screaming in solidarity with the ‘Muslims in Burma’. One banner thus declares the intent of its sponsor: “Gullu Butt urges the people to support him in his ‘cause’ to stop ethnic killings of innocent Muslims in Burma.”

It cannot be just about words with Gullu Butt who, history tells us, is a man of action. The gentleman who shot to fame with his voluntary and on-the-spot punishment of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers says he recently organised a protest in support of the Myanmar Muslims. Unfortunately the demonstration did not get too much attention from the media and public. This was in stark contrast to the coverage he got as he went about vehicle-crushing outside Minhajul Quran Central Secretariat in Model Town in June 2014.

Gullu Butt was arrested and accused of obstructing public servants in discharge of official duties, and smashing private vehicles with a club. On Oct 30, 2014, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) sentenced him to 11.3 years in prison.

In February this year, a division bench of the Lahore High Court upheld his conviction under provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) but set aside the term under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), paving the way for his release, which eventually came about in March 2017. He was now at the mercy of the big bad world, classically disinclined to realise the impact of a single action that had gotten him into this situation.

Of course, Gullu is not at all happy at being ignored by the media in his new role but this is not the only issue he is faced with. He wants the world to notice that he is a changed man ready to ‘serve the people of this country’.

Far from being won over by his call, he sparks hostility – according to his own account. “Only last week, some 30 to 35 young men tried to attack me inside a nearby restaurant,” he said with an element of shock in his voice. “They hurled dire threats at me.”

He uses the instance as a kind of reconfirmation of his transformation. “Had I been the old Gullu Butt, I would have responded to them in kind,” he said.

He says he feels threatened by more than one source, and has a feeling that despite him having served his term, there are people who are not prepared to forgive him. Not just that, he expresses apprehensions of being targeted by ‘friends’ who now think he is a liability.

Gullu Butt’s narration of his life today is full of jitters, a lot of hopping around, capped by sudden flashing of noble mission statements. He is an uprooted man seemingly living in an unreal life yet chasing an elusive ordinary assignment.

He is willing to work as a security guard, perhaps ‘at a bank or school,’ without realising what kind of upheaval such a posting for the infamous one-man-hit squad could lead to among the public. But he is aware enough to be working on other ideas.

“I am also trying to improve my handwriting so that I could find a job abroad,” he told Dawn and showed off a piece of paper he had been using to practise his signature.

It is critical for him to find a new home after the doors to the family house were shut on him. He says he has no place to live right now and spends most of his time sitting at his friend’s internet café in the Kotha Pind area.

Gullu Butt said that after he got ‘international fame,’ people even from distant parts of the country came to have a selfie with him. “But nobody comes out to support me now.”

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2017