It certainly was not the first incident of its kind in this country. But the brutal murder of a teacher by a student has shaken every sensitive and thinking Pakistani. Names do not matter. It could have happened anywhere. It wasn’t too long ago that fellow students lynched Mashal Khan to death within the bounds of a university. That too was in the name of religion.

Clearly, there is intolerance in campuses but it has a context and is reflective of a larger malaise. The students in our degree awarding institutions are being taught some real flawed lessons, and it is time that the state and society, and everything that works in between, realised where those flawed lessons are leading us.

One point of view, which is not too off the mark, is that an incident like this was bound to happen in a state that believes in summary justice and cares little for due process. We have allowed the universities to exist without any semblance of academic freedom and spirit of inquiry; they are barren islands where debate and questioning are disallowed. The textbooks, too, are designed to indoctrinate lessons of hypernationalism and religious bigotry.

Also read: Intolerance on campuses

The teachers that we spoke to for this Special Report are not too happy with the response of the state or government and the larger society over this tragic killing of Professor Khalid Hameed. This, they think, is what perpetuates vigilantism, and this therefore may not be the last such incident. The teachers are scared, not just about their jobs but about their lives too.

We hope, yet again, that this opens our eyes to the kind of society we have created, and takes us forward to becoming a more inclusive, plural and tolerant society instead.