When will our police act?

People rushed out of their cars to help the dying man, but the men in uniform, with guns in their hands, continued to stand idly by.

I had not completely recovered from the shock of losing six of my friends in the Airblue plane crash when I witnessed another gruesome death on Wednesday night, day two of the recent spate of violence in Karachi. I was returning home from work when the situation in Gulistan- e- Jauhar suddenly deteriorated.

There was heavy firing between two spots in the area, Jauhar Morr and Jauhar Chowrangi. In a state of panic, most cars turned around on the same road creating a jam.

In the midst of this, my eyes were drawn to a few bystanders looking down at something. With a sick feeling in my stomach, I realised it was a body of an innocent man who had been caught in the crossfire, the victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Needless to say, my mind went blank with fear for a while.

It was dark as all the street lights had been switched off and the shops had been closed for two days anyway. I fail to understand why streetlights are switched off during such times as I believe it encourages criminals to cause havoc, but that’s for another time.

There was a police mobile standing very close by, but not once did any of the personnel attempt to follow the criminals or even help the victim. People, oblivious to their own danger, had rushed out of their cars to help the dying man, but the men in uniform, with guns in their hands, continued to stand idly by.

I wanted to scream at them to act more professionally. Every time there is an incident of violence, our police fail to act. What have they been trained for? What about their pledges to protect the people? It’s sad and also little wonder that people have started taking the law into their own hands.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2010.