Mob justice

It is said that justice delayed is justice denied; but the other aspect is that justice hurried is justice buried

In Karachi, last week a teenage boy, accused of theft, was lynched to death by a mob. In 2016, two young boys were beaten to death in Sialkot while the police urged them on.  In Karachi, the boy named Rehan was tied to a metal grill and an enraged group of people beat him mercilessly. The police reached the spot and rushed him to a government hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. Not only was the boy beaten mercilessly, the gory scene was also filmed. In keeping with mob mentality the movie was uploaded on social media. This part of the tragic story fully confirms that the mob acts entirely on impulse. By its very nature, it is incapable of giving a thought to the cause or consequences of its mindless actions. The victim boy’s family staged a protest demonstration demanding action against the killers. So far a few people have been arrested on the charge of killing the boy. The case has been registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

In recent years, we have seen several cases of the mob administering its own brand of rough and ready justice. We hope this is the last such case. The other aspect of the issue is the delays involved in the country’s justice system. It is after people get exasperated with delays in the delivery of justice that they tend to take the law into their hands. It is said that justice delayed is justice denied; but the other aspect of the thing is that justice hurried is justice buried. However, under no circumstances, should mob justice be tolerated. It should be nipped in the bud.

Why do such inhumane incidents keep on occurring in our society? Possibly it is because of the casual attitude of the authorities towards issues affecting us. Unfortunately, urgency is the element which is missing.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2019.

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