Sialkot Killings - Modern Day Lynching

Wikipedia defines 'lynching' as an act of "extrajudicial punishment carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake and shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people, however large or small. It is related to other means of social control that arise in communities, such as charivari, riding the rail, and tarring and feathering. Lynchings were more frequent in times of social and economic tension, and often were means by the politically dominant population to oppress social challengers".

Lynching is a phenomenon that was not very popular in Pakistan until a few years ago. In fact, very few people even knew that such a word existed, let alone know what it meant. The concept of extrajudicial killings were probably introduced to our society by the Taliban when they released videos of them slaughtering or shooting their captives.

In May 2009, people in Karachi burned alive three men they called robbers. Later, conflicting news reports came in... some saying that the killed men were really robbers and some saying that they were not and were wrongly accused of  robbery by a person who had held a grudge against them for a petty issue that had happened quite some time ago.

Whatever the reality about their innocence or guilt, the truth is that three men had lost their lives in a manner that can never be justified, whatever their crime. No one deserves to die like that. Anyone who commits a crime must be brought to justice through the judicial and penal systems enforced in the state. No one has the right to decide if a person whom someone is accusing is really guilty or not. That is a job best left for the police and punishing the guilty is the job of the judiciary.

On August 15, 2010, two teenagers were killed by a mob in the village Buttar On Daska Road, Sialkot. The two brothers were riding past the village on their motorcycle when they saw that the villagers had gathered and were shouting, clearly angry. The villagers were angry because there had been a robbery earlier and the robbers had shot a man dead. The victim had been married just 11 months ago. The robbers had also shot and injured three other people before fleeing the village.

The elder brother of the slain man was in the center of the gathering, lamenting his loss. He saw the two brothers on the outer circle of the gathering and remembered that they had earlier had a row with his brother during a cricket match. He pointed at them and accused them of killing his brother. The villagers immediately flung into action. They had finally found someone to vent their anger on. They threw the two teenagers on the ground and started attacking them with sticks, iron rods and bricks.

The brothers - Hafiz Mughees Sajjad (19) and Muneeb Sajjad (17) - did not even have the chance to speak for themselves. They were outnumbered. Some people came forward to their rescue, telling the mob that they knew the two brothers and that they were not robbers, but the villagers turned on them too, beating them until they fled or promised not to intervene again.The villagers formed a circle around their victims and clubbed them for an excruciating two hours. The younger brother lasted only 10 minutes, but the elder Mughees endured the torture for TWO HOURS. The video of the last minutes of the two young men is so horrifying, it cannot be seen completely without one's heart leaping into the throat. A reporter of Dunya News who had reached the scene as soon as he heard of the lynching and had recorded the incident on camera said he could not sleep for three days and nights after witnessing the brutal killing of the two young men.

The more horrifying detail is that the incident happened close to the office of the rescue services. The rescuers did not rush to the aid of the victims... instead, the footage shows them standing aside and watching the killing in silence. A rescue worker is even shown helping the assailants and tying down the victims. The police were called after the mob had captured the two teens and had started beating them, but they came 45 minutes late. The even more appalling fact is that even when the police did arrive, their presence was no better than that of a spectator. In fact, people claim and video footage confirms that the local Station House Officer (SHO) and his constables had formed a protective circle around the scene, preventing anyone from intervening. They watched in silence as the two young men were beaten to their deaths.

However, the ordeal and humiliation of the two brothers did not end with their deaths. The villagers dragged the bodies with the ropes (that a rescue worker had tied on their feet) to a nearby overhead water tank. The bodies were hung upside down on the pillars of the water tank. The beating did not stop there either.

The district police officer (DPO) was also at the scene and can be seen encouraging and praising those who were beating the two teenagers. After their deaths, he 'arranged' for the bodies to be taken to the district morgue. The 'arrangement' was that the bodies were dumped on a tractor trolley with their bashed and severely swollen heads hanging behind for everyone to see. When the trolley reached its destination, the bodies were literally thrown off it face first in the dirt and turned over again so that the people there could see the faces.

Imagine the ordeal and the trauma that the family of the two brothers had gone through that day. The two men were the only sons of the family. Their sister is the youngest of the three siblings. Imagine what their parents had to witness when the bodies arrived for the funeral. I can hear the mother's cries and feel the father's heartache when they would have seen what had remained of the faces of their sons.

In the end, we can only ask why such an incident occurred in the first place? If the villagers did find it justified to beat the robbers up, why did they not stop at some time? People all over the world want to keep their children away from graphic violence, why then did the villagers encourage their young ones to step up and land some blows on the two hapless souls? Has the modern society become so insensitive to the pain and suffering of others that we can no longer feel the need to stop people from causing someone pain... even when we see them being tortured and bled to death? Didn't the villagers feel anything seeing the two men die in front of their eyes? How and why were the villagers laughing in the video when the bodies were being hanged on the water tank pillars?

And in the end... these questions may be considered blasphemous, but I don't care and I ask... why did God allow this to happen? Why did He think the two men deserved the pain and suffering that they had to endure? Why did they have to go through the ordeal for TWO HOURS? Couldn't God have let them die earlier? If the existence of every living being really does have some purpose to it and if there is a Divine Plan on which the world is running, was this part of the plan? If yes, WHY?

I have no answer to these questions, but I hope someone does.