Intended to terrorise
The business of crime thrives on fear. Professional criminals purposely behave in a way to spread horror and terror of themselves and openly claim pride of their unlawful and immoral exploits to stoke up a feeling of vulnerability and helplessness among their targets – as well as those who are duty-bound to keep a check on their criminal activities. A harrowing display of the felonious modus operandi in nowhere but our own capital city has left the whole nation in a state of deep shock and despair. So outlandish is the incident – of sexual assault on a young couple – that it has spurred the highest elected office in the country, the Prime Minister House, into action, and quite rightly and timely so.
Here are the devilish details of the sexual assault committed by one Usman Mirza, a self-proclaimed badmash, apparently in a room of some apartment block in Islamabad. Mirza thrashes the young couple, in the presence of his half a dozen accomplices, and forces them to expose their bodies. He also slaps them around for refusing and tries to remove the woman’s clothes himself. The men carrying weapons threaten the two victims with physical harm. How all these traumatic details of the brazen incident came to the knowledge of all and sundry is even more distressing. Full of chutzpah, this goon got the whole terrorist activity – yes this is a terrorist activity, and quite organised at that – filmed on the camera and then thrown on social media to go viral and be known to howsoever powerful or authoritative they may be. An open challenge indeed!
Pressured by the outrage among the public and by the notice taken by the prime minister, the police took up the gauntlet, and now the prime accused as well as his accomplices are behind bars. As for the case, new evidence suggests that Mirza is a serial assaulter, and possibly worse. More victims are coming forward and saying he would attack them at a guest house he owned. The charges against Mirza carry a maximum penalty of death sentence. Some sections of society oppose such a punishment on ethical grounds. We can understand where they are coming from. Others, including a few who walk the corridors of power, are calling for him to be tortured in a similar way. Such sadism cannot be approved of though, it is grounded in pretty justified emotions.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s personal interest in the case is utterly in keeping with the demands of his office, as well as the writ of the relevant authorities. He has reportedly told the Islamabad police chief that such people “don’t deserve concessions”. We agree, which is why they need to be charged not just as sexual predators but also as terrorists under the Anti-Terrorism Act. This is not a far-fetched idea. There is a long, sordid history of sexual violence being used as a tool for terror in times of war and peace. In terms of the legalese, it is easily established that the attack was not some random act of violence, but was intended to terrorise. The video, in turn, has spread terror across the city.
At the same time, while a terrorism charge today may deter some would-be attackers tomorrow, we must also work to become a society that listens to victims and not abusers. Otherwise, if not for a video, men like Usman Mirza – and Mufti Azizur Rehman, the cleric who abused a madrassa boy, for that matter – would still be free.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2021.
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