August 29, 2017
By Saeed Qureshi
A few days ago,
while watching television, all of sudden a snapshot appeared on the screen. It
was a clip of video showing a boy lying with face downwards on the ground. It
was the scene of a police station. The boy should be of 15-18 years of age. He
was wearing a white pent and a reddish stripped shirt. Two policemen were also present in that room.
One of the police
man was sitting towards the face of the boy. He was firmly holding his two arms. The other
was sitting behind him. The policeman sitting behind him had a big leather slipper(shoe)
in his hand. He was constantly hitting the boy’s buttocks. The boy was unable
to move because his protruded hands were firmly gripped by the police man
sitting in front of him. The boy seemed utterly helpless and in extreme agony.
The boy was perhaps
rounded up in a public gathering and was brought to the police station for
punishment. He might be one of the protesters and might be shouting like anyone
else. Physically he looked so tender and skinny that he couldn’t have hit or
harmed anyone in the crowd.
It seems that he
was an easy catch by the sturdy and physically powerful persons dressed in the
police uniforms. He was constantly being bludgeoned on his back. Since he was
gripped by the arms he could not even move although pain caused by lashes must
be unbearable. It was like of a sparrow clutched and torn off by hawks ruthlessly.
Ever since I have
seen that horrifying footage I have been in a state of shock. I have tried to
get some more details about this heart wrenching incident. I tried to see the
newspapers and watch TV for a few days but there were not more details
available in any outlet. Later I came to know that he died as a result of that
merciless beating by the policemen.
A glimpse of his
family members and parents was partially shown during his funeral. They were
weeping and seemed to be in a state of utter shock and agony. The news and TV footage
was later discontinued on the Television and other media outlets. It looks the
police had prevailed on both print and electronic media to not pursue the case
and publicize it further.
While I have been
myself passing through an agonizing state of mind I am not aware if the culprit
policemen were caught or the governor or the chief justice or the inspector general police
force took any cognizance of this extreme brutality and rather murder. One could
see utter helplessness on the face of that tender, slim and well-dressed
teenage boy. He was not aware that these rascals would inflict so much of
torture on him that he would not survive.
This kind of
brutality and physical punishment is a norm in every police station in
Pakistan. No one from among the lower and poor sections of society can pick up
the courage to ask for justice and pursue the case in a court of law for two reasons.
One is poverty and the other is the fear that they may also be caught and
treated in the same brutal manner. Moreover, due to the lack of resources and knowledge
of the court proceedings they cannot seek justice and thus such inhuman and
savage treatment of the police on their innocent and not innocent captives goes
on. The people, even otherwise, are psychologically afraid of the police and
seeking redress of the grievous incidents like this boy remains a far cry.
Let me, in the
hindsight, remind my readers about two gruesome and similar diabolical
incidents that happened in Pakistan in the past. One was at Lahore in which one
mad murderer killed about 100 children by suffocating them with poisonous gas. That
killing spree continued for a long period of time. This most diabolic mass
murder of innocent boys is perhaps the first in the criminal history of human
beings. He couldn’t be caught by the police and ultimately, he himself surrendered
at the office of Dailies “The News” and “Jang" in Rawalpindi. He was not
hanged. He and his accomplices died in jail.
The second grisly
incident happened in the city of Sialkot. In that incident two young brothers
were killed by a group the powerful local mafia in broad day light and in
collusion with the police. One can remember in the hindsight how the crowd was watching
silently and with folded hands the lethal beating by the murderers on those two
defenseless and surrounded boys. No one intervened to save those boys. The
policemen were also part of that lynching scene of the youths of the Islamic
republic of Pakistan. and watched those boys being killed by batons, kicks and
sharp weapons.
Those people should
still be living who watched those murders. No one intervened to save them. It
looked as if the villains and non-Muslims were being killed by a frenzy crowd
of fanatic Muslims and ruthless religious practitioners offering five prayers a
day and soliciting the mercy of God for themselves.
Such is the horrific
life in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan where human life has no importance
either for law, courts, judges, government functionaries, the religious zealots,
the police force and even the people. We cannot categories such a society as
inhabited by good Muslims, God fearing and merciful people. Instead they are
worst hypocrites, superficially preaching Islamic virtues and norms of justice.
This opinion is borne out by the indifference exhibited by the utterly callous onlookers
of that one of the most heinous murders happening before their eyes. It is
understood that after having seen those helpless boys killed in board day light
by the ruffians, most of them must have headed to the mosques to say their
prayers. What a rank hypocritical religious fervor!
No one is aware when
law and order and concerned agencies would have heart and stop the highhandedness
of the powerful classes and individuals against the poor, weak and defenseless
citizens of the society. The rape and abduction of the young girls by the rich
and dominant feudal lords and thugs have been variously reported. But the state
doesn’t move and seems to be helpless in face of rich and resourceful sections
of the society because both are chips of the same block.
The religious
scholars and custodians of the faith seem to be utterly detached and different
to such rampant lawlessness and brazen crimes which in fact should be their
foremost responsibility and priority to attend. They are trying to make good Muslims through
their foggy sermons and fighting sectarian feuds but cannot see such frightening
incidents that destroy the peace of the society and cut across the pristine elements
of faith that Islam ordains. One such element is to protect the vulnerable,
ensure justice and punish the evildoers and law breakers.
The rulers and all
those in power in politics or business come from the privileged and elite
classes. They have manpower and money at their disposal to break law and get
away with that. They take revenge and no one touch them.
The feudal lords
rule over their serfs, tenets, farm labor and tillers working on the lands for
ages like slaves. They give them a fraction their farm harvest just to sustain.
They kill them if someone tries to run away. These people have been serving
them on their lands since the colonial rule in the sub-continent.
When the common man and people keep suffering
from innumerable issues ranging from poverty, denial of justice and social
drawbacks and deformities. The rich and wealthy gloat over other miseries of
less equals and the have-nots. They possess the political power, tons of money
and clout to beat, kill, maim and kidnap anyone.
Was this the
Pakistan that the founder of Pakistan Quaid -e- Azam and other torch bearers of
the independence visualized. Quaid-e-Azam must be turning in his grave of what
is happening in a Pakistan which was created in the name of religion and decent
society.
Let us Look around
and we shall realize that we have tuned barbarian, thugs. There is a rampant
and deep divide between rich and poor, resourceful and resource-less,
privileged and unprivileged, the powerful killers and their helpless victims.
Pakistan is in dire
need of a French Revolution (1789-1799). It was a colossal revolution brought about
by the peasants, laboring class and deprived sections of the society. A new
France emerged after a prolonged phase of civil war, autocracy and
dictatorship. “The Revolution resulted in the suppression of the feudal system,
the emancipation of the individual, the greater division of landed property,
the abolition of the privileges of noble birth, enjoyed by the clergy and the
aristocracy and the establishment of equality.” Thousands of people died
in that revolution. Radical social change based on liberalism and Enlightenment principles
were brought about. The then the king of France f Louis XVI was guillotined
(public execution) in 1793.
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