Humanity stooped to a low when two people were attacked and lynched in broad daylight by a vigilante mob in Karachi’s Machhar Colony after rumours spread that they were child kidnappers. Local police have confirmed that the two were actually employees of a cellular company carrying out routines checks on antennas and signals in the area. They were roaming in their vehicle and equipped with different devices when some miscreants spread rumours about them. Later on, a crowd of 500 to 600 people gathered and beat them to death.
Many such brutal cases have come to light in the past such as those of Mughees and Muneeb Butt in Sialkot, Mashal Khan in Mardan and Priyantha Diyawadanage, the Sri Lankan citizen, also in Sialkot. However, this has most commonly occurred in alleged cases of blasphemy or when street criminals are caught by the public. It is explicitly clear that in Pakistan this is more of a social problem. Such acts cannot be justified through any means, religious or otherwise, and should have no place in any respectable and dignified society. That such heinous acts are carried out unabated by the credulous masses is a clear indication of moral degradation, lack of social empathy and low socio-economic standing. It also indicates the dangers of social media and information dissemination. The people here are not tech-savvy and can therefore not differentiate between authentic and fake information being forwarded on different platforms. This is exactly how the rumour suddenly turned into a reality for the people of Machhar Colony.
While on the one hand a continuous effort must be made to improve socio-economic indicators such as quality education, on the other, the government must reform the justice system so that people regain confidence instead of taking matters into their own hands.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 31st, 2022.
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