Lords of the flies: A rogue by any other name

Teenage protesters take pride in brutal assault of policemen, teach others to do the same

ISLAMABAD:

Muhammad Sardar, 15, was proud of brutally beating a policeman.

Clad in shabby clothes, holding a stick with sharp nails driven in it and some stones in his other hand, Sardar showed no remorse over his violent behavior.

He proudly shared the story of how he thrashed the cop with his fellow protesters, saying he hit him on the head and back at least 10 times.

Sardar, a Pakistan Awami Tehreek worker, has also promised not to take a bath until the revolution comes. As he spoke, it was easy to determine that he had been true to his word so far.

He broke for a moment to ask other teenage ‘protesters’ to collect more stones and remain vigilant as they might be attacked from any side by “Gullo Butts”, as his shadow began resembling the mustachioed Lahori brawler.

Sardar seemed to be something of a veteran of violence, judging by how he boasted, “I also beat policemen outside Islamabad Airport the day [Dr Tahirul Qadri] was coming from Canada.”

Sardar said he had no respect for policemen as they were killing PAT workers, “so they all deserved to be killed”.

Every rose has its thorn

There are dozens of children, some as you as a few months old, at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) ‘sit-in’ point.

Although claiming to be non-violent protesters, the ‘flowers’ in their hands are actually sticks, and the ‘thorns’, metal nails. For others, the weapons of choice are wire and box cutters, slingshots, glass beads, marbles and stones.

The area where many of the best and worst works of government have been executed is turning into a training field for torture and violence, with verbal instructions being handed out on how to take down police officials and prepare their melee weapons and Molotov cocktails (petrol bombs).

Enter the beast

Most of these armed children at the sit-ins shared Sardar’s views.

According to the intelligence agencies and Interior Ministry’s reports, there are around 600 children who are exposed to harsh weather, unhygienic food and unhealthy surroundings, while the only words being added to their vocabularies are unusable in polite conversation.

Psychologists were of the view these children are vulnerable to many kinds of exploitation. They say their violent behavior will result in a violent society and would ultimately disrupt social order.

“This trend will do away with the fear of prosecution and will create disrespect for state institutions,” said Dr Muhammad Irfan Kisyana, general secretary of All Pakistan Psychological Association.

Dr Irfan said this behavior and incitement to violence are damaging the children’s personalities as they are continuously incited to use violence and torture by political leaders.

He said that when these children go back to their villages, they will share stories of being victimised by the police and boast of their own roles in torturing policemen and the damage they caused to life and property.

“In response, their friends may also adopt violent behaviour and may start attacking law enforcement officials,” said Irfan. They are being brainwashed, inciting them to take law in their hands, he said.

He said the political leaders should be tried for exposing these children to exploitation and brainwashing against the state.

Sahibzada Ayub Khan, a Peshawar-based psychiatrist, was of the view that these children will lose sense of respect to elders and state institutions.

“These children will not even show respect to their parents and may behave in violent way if stopped from committing any offence,” Khan said.

He said the political parties were inciting them on disobedience and training them to have no fear of rule of law. Besides, keeping the underage children in an adult environment is exposing them to all kinds of exploitation.

Most psychologists feared that misuse of these youth would make them violent and may fall prey to groups who could use them against the state.

A child rights’ specialist, who asked not to be named, said that exposing children to such a harsh environment was a violation of their rights. He added that most of them have been away from their schools for almost a month, while the children of Islamabad were being affected due to the protests as the reopening of their schools had to be delayed.

But on Constitution Avenue, ‘classes’ continue.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2014.