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| India-Pakistan |
| Mob justice |
| 2012-06-20 |
| [Dawn] WHERE cities are forever smarting under violence and where the grip of the law is loose, it is not unusual for citizens to act as police and judge. With faith as a motive the mix becomes lethal and the protesters turn into a vigilante mob with ready justifications for murder. Mob justice has been witnessed in several places, and lately the vigilantes have appeared in the lawless streets of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and near Quetta. On Sunday, a mob attacked a cop shoppe in Bloody Karachi, angered by the alleged blasphemous act of a man -- reportedly a drug addict -- who had been booked and enjugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! by the law-enforcers. The police managed to disperse the raiders with aerial shooting of bullets and firing teargas shells, even though the situation was tense enough for Rangers to have been called in. Given the prevailing atmosphere, this was an instance where an ugly incident was avoided. A similar angry raid on a cop shoppe near Quetta which was holding a blasphemy suspect on Saturday turned more violent. It ended in the death of one protester and caused bullet injuries to no less than 19 men, eight of them coppers. Such incidents are linked in no small part to the blasphemy laws on our books and the increasing atmosphere of religious intolerance that is crowding out all voices of sanity. Moreover, a judicial system which has failed to deliver has aggravated the general frustrations of a society that has increasingly come to feel that for its grievances to be addressed adequately, it must take the law into its own hands. Rights activists, both in Pakistain and abroad, have time and again questioned the inability of governments in the country to effectively check these violent protests that have a tendency to get out of control and to result in acts of extreme brutality. Quite often, it has been noticed, the law-enforcers fail to fully anticipate the repercussions of holding a blasphemy accused and are late in putting remedial measures in place. While theirs is certainly a sensitive job, they must take all precautions to protect a suspect from the anger of the mob. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 There's no justice like angry mob justice. |
| Posted by: gromky 2012-06-20 02:16 |
| #1 Karachi [+ rest of Pakland] having severe, seemingly routine = permanent? Power, Water, + Gas shortages doesn't help. Cities have low or no Central Air, no Cold Water, Ice [Sewer?], + no fuel for Cars, Trucks, etc. Nuclear-armed Pakistan ranked #13 on the list of Failed States. RICH GET RICHER, POOR GET POORER = TALIBAN, AL-QAEDA = MILITANT TAKEOVER OF COUNTRY + NUKES COME 2014 OR SHORTLY AFTER [electorally, or violently]??? * E.G. IIRC TOPIX [old]> MINISTER:IMPORT OF LNG COSTS PAKISTAN US$1.0BILYUHN MONTHLY. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-06-20 00:17 |