Celebrating with guns blazing still rampant in Punjab

There are many ways of expressing one’s jubilation but the preferred one in weddings all over the country is aerial firing; furthermore, the police do not have satisfactory answers on how to put a stop to a practice which has taken countless lives.

Like the rest of the country, Punjab’s residents too are fond of celebrating weddings by pointing their firearms towards the sky and not letting go of the trigger until the bullet chamber is empty.

This fondness of an illegal activity led to 5 people being injured and 1 man losing his life in the first three months of the year. To crackdown on the instances of aerial firing 1,420 cases were registered all over Punjab from January to March of 2022 - a total of 3,076 people were named in the cases and 1,936 arrests were made.

However, the arrests cannot return those who lost their lives and they have done little to deter people from firing as celebration. Aslam, a resident of Lahore who declined to give his complete name, said that aerial firing was an expression of happiness and the police should not interfere. “Even in cases they do interfere, all they are looking for is bribes.

They do not arrest anyone and even if they do, the accused are let out on bail instantly,” Aslam alleged. Similarly, Nadeem, another resident of Punjab’s capital, inquired from the Express Tribune that when else could they bring out their weapons if not on weddings? While there’s no definite answer to Nadeem’s query, data gathered from police sources suggests that Lahoris are quite fond of aerial firing as the highest number of cases so far in the year have been registered in Lahore - a total of 470 cases were registered; 674 people were nominated and 530 were arrested.

Not far behind are the districts of Gujranwala 470 arrests; Sheikhupura 277 arrests; and Sargodha where 216 arrests were made in cases involving aerial firing. The Express Tribune inquired from a Punjab Police spokesman, who only answered on the condition of anonymity, whether the arrests had made any difference in curtailing aerial firing, to which he said that reported cases had come down significantly.

“The government has taken strict measures in recent times. All those involved are put in jail, cases are made against them, and their weapons are confiscated,” he informed. The spokesman cheekily remarked that the police have gone to the extent of arresting the groom in weddings just to deter people from the practice. However, the Punjab Police spokesman’s remarks are in stark contrast with officers who are sent to make the arrests. One such officer, on the condition of anonymity confided to the Express Tribune that whenever they arrive at the location where aerial firing is reported, normally they are handed a cell phone to talk to a higher up. “If on the other side of the phone an influential person is telling you to mind your business, there is little we can do,” the officer said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2022.