How Fahad Ilyas, a grade three student, came to be injured is a matter of dispute. His father says that he was hit by a police baton; the police deny this and a report commissioned by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif takes the side of the police saying that the boy was injured when he fell on the road during the melee. It will be recalled that the same police force was recently accused of baton-charging a group of disabled protesters, many of them blind. Whilst it is clear that the police have a duty to maintain law and order and that large crowds can at times present a significant public order problem, the manner in which the police act and react is often little better than the behaviour of the crowds they are required to police. Crowds can get unruly very quickly, but it appears that the police have but a single response, and that is more violence. The police forces nationally need to seek a little more diversity when it comes to crowd control. It is unacceptable to baton-charge groups that include children, no matter what the provocation, and likewise unacceptable to use maximum force against groups of female protesters — something which the police have been observed to do in the past. The police force in Punjab needs to repair its reputation, and quickly and by some other means than giving out sweets and saying ‘sorry’ — which in itself implies they had done something to be sorry for.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2015.
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