Sialkot lynching recalled: Students remember victim brothers

What would have been Mughees’ 18th birthday was celebrated.

ISLAMABAD:

The memories of the Sialkot lynching tragedy was recalled by a group of students in the federal capital with horrific pictures of two helpless brothers in front of the president’s house on Thursday. The protesters relived the cruelty of the “mob justice” and asked questions, which should be answered if such tragedies are to be avoided in the future.

Last August, two brothers Hafiz Mughees and Muneeb were brutally beaten to death by a mob. In the momentum of madness, the bodies were hanged, kicked and mutilated.

Over a dozen of students from different universities observed a candle-lit vigil in front of the Presidency to celebrate what would have been Hafiz Mughees’s 19th birthday.

“He was just 18 when they killed him,” said Batool Janjua, a student from the International Islamic University Islamabad.

When the students made a chain holding candles and banners, many cars slowed down and almost every passerby noticed the handful of students demanding an end to “mob justice”.

I am not concerned if the two brothers were innocent or not, I only despise the way they were killed, said Adeel Ali, a student of Preston University Islamabad. “Mob justice is dangerous. It could be exploited to be used against innocent people,” he added.

Fatima Aneela, a representative of Pakistan Youth Forum, said she was moved by the question as to why the people opted for mob justice. Joined by others, Aneela herself answered her question. “It was because our judicial system was corrupt and weak, just like our police,” said Aneela in chorus with many others around her.

Then who was to be blamed, the mob or the judicial system?

Majority of students said it was judicial system which was showing no signs of improvement in the foreseeable future. However, they maintained that mob justice was not acceptable under any conditions. “It must be discouraged and that is why we have come here to remind people of the threats that it pose to society,” said Fahad Rehman, a student of a medical college.

But until the faults in judicial system were not addressed, mob psychology cannot be contained.

The students nodded in unison, saying ‘everyone had to play their part to bring the desired change in the society.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2011.