Laal performed against all religious extremism.

Laal band staged a performance against terrorism and religious extremism by performing on their songs based on Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Habib Jalib, Baba Farid and Allama Iqbal’s poetry on Saturday at Olomopolo media studios.
The gig concert was attended by a large number of people. Laal, while performing in a mainstream media genre, aimed to get attention for the lawyers’ movement, which was to restore the former chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Taimur Rahman, who is the main vocalist and guitarist, belonging to the Left-wing socialist school of thought, enthralled the audience with his performance. While talking exclusively to Daily Times, he said, “In a simple way, if you want to understand what religious terrorism and extremism is, the answer is, that it’s a cancer prevailing rapidly in the Pakistani society. There has been a secret understanding between the noble and clergy of our country who ruled to secure their interests and make polices, which are against the common masses. Everyone in society from media persons to singers and from politicians to teachers have to play this role to curb the mindset of extremism. I am fighting to expose the hypocrisy of extremists and those who sell wrong things in the name of religion to people.”

As the gig night was staged against the extremist mindset present in our society, Rahman while talking to the people said that the Peshawar incident had exposed the ‘apologist’ people, who had done a lot of damage by supporting and defending extremist ideologies. The gig kept everyone engaged and deeply entertained.
Backup vocalist Mahwash Waqar, bass player Salman Majeed and drummer Waleed were at their best whilst performing.



Laal performed around 10 songs, which were “Mere dil mere musaffir” (poetic lyrics of Faiz Ahmed Faiz when he was exiled in Lebanon), “Tum apni karni kar guzro” a song, which Rahman said he had sung almost in every village and in front of the oppressed farmers of Punjab), Baba Farid Ganj Shakr’s “Farida turia turia ja”, Habib Jalib’s “Maulana”, “Umeed-e-Sehar Ki Baat Suno”, “Mein Nay Us Yeh Kaha”, “Dehshatgardi Murdabad” and in the end, they sung “Utho Meri Dunya Kay Garibo Ko Jaga Do”.

During the performance, Rahman chanted the slogan “Hay Faiz Bhi Zinda, Zinda Hay” and “Jalib Bhi Zinda, Zinda Hay”.
The executive director of Olomopolo media studios Kanwal Khoosat said her organisation weekly staged these type of performances to educate people about the importance and significance of performing arts. She praised the band on how beautifully they had conveyed their message and put forth their observation on religious hatred, which was present in our society.

link: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/entertainment/28-Dec-2014/laal-band-performs-against-religious-extremism