Mobs on motorbikes

Death by mob action is now becoming a real hazard in several parts of our country, expanding further and further across it. We have had ‘executions’ in the north, the beating to death witnessed recently in Butter, a village near Sialkot, the burning to death of those accused of crime and now the beating to death of a motorist in Gujrat. The factory owner who became the victim of the most recent assault was dragged out of his car and beaten to death by a motorcycle rider (who was ‘assisted’ by other people) — this happened after the victim’s car collided with the motorbike. In the midst of such insanity, it is hard to know when death may come or where it may lie. Are we really a people so crazed with rage that we do not even stop at murder? Have we lost all perspective and all sense of morality? It is astonishing too that along a busy road no one stepped in to even try and stop the killing.

The mob violence we have been seeing recently represents a phenomenon that needs to be analysed and assessed carefully. We cannot stand by and let more such incidents unfold. Another innocent life has been lost for nothing more than, at worst, a misdemeanour. What we are seeing is a more or less complete breakdown of law and order. Measures are urgently needed to save it. The reasons for the violence have been attributed to a legal system that doesn’t deliver, to a lack of faith in police and to a growing sense of public anger. But the time has come for a campaign to be mounted to dissuade people from meting out vigilante-style ‘justice’ and educating them about the norms of civilization. Political parties and other groups all need to play a part in this to avert a descent into a condition of yet more chaos and the consequent threat to the life of everybody.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2010.