Pakistan's blasphemy laws: ''Our savage nature''

EDITORIAL: Daily Times

Another barbaric incident has once again revealed this nation’s dysfunctional relationship with the country’s blasphemy laws and a social psyche so cruel that one cannot help but hang one’s head in shame. A man, accused of burning a copy of the holy Quran when staying overnight at a mosque in Seeta village in Sindh, has been lynched and burnt alive by a mob out to seek vigilante justice. The traveller was handed over to the police by the imam (cleric) of the mosque and was detained in police custody. A few hours later a mob about 200 strong stormed the station and dragged the man out where they beat him within an inch of his life. It was then that they set him on fire and gleefully watched him burn to death. If this is not savage, one really does not know what is. Onlookers made videos of this cruel crime and it is through these one gets to see the utter barbarity of the act. What is worse is that police officials made no effort to rescue the victim, truly proving that the police is no more than a tamashbeen (spectator). It is also being reported that the victim may have been mentally challenged. This is not the first time such an atrocious act has occurred and one fears it will not be the last. From the cruel lynching of two alleged thieves in Sialkot some two years back to this latest incident, too many people, gathered within the furious ranks of a mob, have been allowed to get away with murder — no pun intended — without fear of retribution. The police does not deal with mobs of people out to kill and lets them do as they please. Particularly in cases pertaining to blasphemy, the mobs have taken upon themselves the duty of seeking revenge and that usually entails murder. The police are too overwhelmed by the sheer brutality of the mob and more so by their own incompetence to actually do something about it. Our collective psyche is becoming more and more primitive without a thought given to law and order. Usually those accused of blasphemy die at the hands of such vigilantes and nothing is ever done about it. Safeguards must be incorporated at the police stations particularly when those accused of blasphemy are brought in. The law must provide for these safeguards even if it does not offer any solace to the accused. The least we can do is empower the police stations to deal with ravaging mobs so that they cannot whisk away the accused from under the noses of the police. This was indeed a very tragic, cruel incident and the authorities must do everything possible to provide safeguards against false blasphemy accusation to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.