Peace walk: Dozens join appeal for speedy justice

Campaigners demanded blood in exchange for blood.

A peace walk was held at Seaview to demand justice for Bilal Macdi’s murder, on Saturday.

Bilal Macdi’s mother sat in a white Mehran at Seaveiw, her eyes red from crying for her son who was killed without cause. “I want blood for blood,” demanded Bilal’s mother.

At 5 pm people started gathering in front of the seaview Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise, the majority belonged to students from elite schools, most of them had found out about the campaign through Facebook. The family had made a Facebook community - ‘Speedy Justice to Bilal Macdi’,  2,200 people had promised to attend but hardly 10 per cent were present at the occasion.

A small boy held a placard that read ‘President Uncle, please pass the bill for public hanging.’ A friend of Bilal’s, Furqan Shoukat , told The Express Tribune that he used to take tuitions at the same place as Bilal. “He was a good human being, I met him 4 days before the incident at Smoke Avenue,” said Shoukat. “When I received the news, I couldn’t believe it.”

Another friend of Bilal and an active participant in the protest, Agha Salik, described the personality of the alleged assassin, 19-year-old Abu Bakar. “He belongs to a lower class family and has an inferiority complex. He is a psych patient, everyone used to stay away from him,” said Salik. “Bilal was his friend and Abu Bakar repaid this friendship horribly.”

The alleged criminals, Abu Bakar, Sagheer, and Sagheer’s brother are all in the custody of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell. The police are still searching for two more suspects.

The peace walk ended after a kilometre, its destination was the Floating Ship restaurant, where Bilal’s friends and sympathisers shouted slogans.



Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2011.