The Verdict
"Die, killer, die"

"Die, killer, die"

While the individual desire for revenge is understandable, can we justify a public lynching?

Ferya Ilyas June 03, 2011

In the busy traffic of Lahore on June 2, 2011, a traffic warden stopped a car carrying a patient, for reasons unknown. The family was frustrated by more than the hot weather, smoke and the sound of horns. They wanted to rush to the hospital.

The patient was in need of critical medical attention. However, the warden was in no hurry. According to TV reports, he couldn’t come up with a credible reason for stopping the car, yet he demanded cash in exchange for letting the family go.

Despite being bribed, the incident carried on so long that the patient in the back seat passed away.

What followed was equally saddening. Relatives and some passersby decided to teach the warden a lesson. They beat him up!

Video footage showed the frustrated lot beating him mercilessly. The death of a family member is an irrecoverable loss and in this particular case, it was unforgivable. The family witnessed their loved one dying in front of them due to unwarranted delays by a corrupt warden. The immediate feeling was of revenge. And they took it.

Incidents of people taking the law in their own hands and attaining justice by themselves are so frequent now that they are becoming a cliché. A cliché no one wants to talk about.

Past incidents of people beating and burning robbers to death and this recent beating of a traffic warden, show the state of mind we all are in.

We have lost trust in the system of justice installed in the country, and more recently, in the ability of our security forces to protect us.

Our frustration and anxiety has crossed the level of sanity. We take part in such acts with guns, sticks and stones. And those who have none join in using their shoes.

In our state of madness, we have forgotten that an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.

An official’s corruption leading to a death cannot and should not be avenged by beating him up, possibly to death. In democratic societies everyone has the right to trial and the court decides a criminal’s fate. However, with a lack of such a system in place, there is real terror in Pakistan.

The family’s desire to kill the warden is perhaps understandable but what should we make of the average Joes walking on the street who decided to join in without question, without hesitation?

WRITTEN BY:
Ferya Ilyas

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (15)

shahid mahmood ahmad | 12 years ago | Reply Our society at large is shorn of the social values it once proudly enjoyed. Now the whole country that was acquired in the name of Muslims is sunk deep in the abyss of corruption. Can you name any walk of life here which is corruption free. No, certainly not. Whether it is the teachers or religious clerics, lawyers or judges, security agencies or politicians all are blindly following the road to darkness and hell. What a pity, a country of 'Muslims' truly reminds me of a saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad that a time would come when there will remain only the name of Islam without its real spirit behind it. If Pakistan of today portrays the true picture of this Hadith then we should look around to see the true Muslims and true Islam which teaches to fulfill the rights of the fellow citizens. Because the answer as how to find the true Islam is there in the very Hadith. Then people would not die on roads awaiting clearance from sentries.

Confused | 12 years ago | Reply People are angry and they want to prove it. I wish they weren't so angry.

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Shahvir Chaudhry | 12 years ago | Reply Its so bewildering that small things we take for granted such as Traffic stops and busy hours can have huge effects on people's lives to the extent that they can take their lives away and cause immense pain to their loved ones. The irony remains that such horrible instances can result into chaos in an atmosphere of lawlessness and the lack of an effective legal system and a stable judiciary can make these occurrences seem like a norm.

mussarat hussain | 12 years ago | Reply @Rehan Ali: Is registration number of a vehicle carrying dying patients to hospital more important than a human being? Ridciculous...........Oh my God. If SP traffic has any sense of duty and a shameful being, he should tender resignation right away. Mussarat

parvez | 12 years ago | Reply I have said this many times but it needs repeating untill someone finally does something. Most of the ills and problems our society faces today is the result of years of failure on the part of our law enforcers (they are politicised) and the judiciary who have been despensing selective justice instead of across the board justice. The essence is that justice is handed out speedily in a manner that justice is not only done but is seen to be done. These two have a lot to answer for to the people and they can start by upholding the high principles of their offices right now.

Jam Sajjad Hussain | 12 years ago | Reply My dear Colleague, no doubt, its your personal opinion but I would suggest you to collect at least necessary facts before you wish to elaborate any incident. You should know the warden was professionally but morally he should go the victim family. Now, think would there a terrorist lying inside a private car cordoned with two women and two men and if the warden let them go, what would be results? Definitely there might be huge loss of life and valuables. Moreover, your comment in the end are praise worthy, yes the entire society has become morally corrupt but remember we have to change the established fictitious norms. Your well wisher, Jam Sajjad Hussain Crime Reporter The Nation, Lahore.

Natasha Suleman | 12 years ago | Reply You have to have trust in order to lose it in the first place. When was the last time you 'trusted' the judicial system of our country author? This is not to suggest that I support killing the warden (if indeed he was killed)

Fahad Raza | 12 years ago | Reply Man common decency has departed from our society. That is why vigilante justice is taken over. Now every one can talk about how bad beating up a cop is but we really need to weed out the corruption in the lower tiers of justice system it can initiate anarchy in the name of revolution.

AA | 12 years ago | Reply Eye for an eye must be established...if we wanna save world from total blindness...but people who have only little knowledge cannot understand it... The punishment must established by the state....otherwise...it will result in total destruction.. It is commanded that if we see something wrong we should stop it by hand....but when the event has already been happened...then it is not the teaching of Islam that we take law enforcement in our hand...and start punishing the person.. In all such events...I have not seen any one who stand by the poor during the event...everyone came after the event...and became a zalim...l and the responsibility of this does not on go only to Government or those who beat that person...the responsibility of this event also goes to those who bribed that warden before that event or that day...right from the beginning when he first asked for it and got money from an ordinary person like me.. This has raised the hopes of that warden and made him feel easy with this practice.... Look around us...even in our relatives...we will find many who have been involved in bribery in any form...either in form of gifts, or services in return or relaxation of rules and laws for some benefits..etc.. We should stop involving ourselves in bribery...otherwise...may be we would get our results but some other person will die on road because of this... May Allah bless all.. Allah knows best..

Asad | 12 years ago | Reply when the french revolution came, some french arrogant elites would have called the revolutionists as ignorant trouble makers. But it made no difference to the revolutionists, who changed their nation for the better. Pakistan needs a revolution similar to the arab countries. All the political parties, judiciary, police, army should all be ousted and replaced with a clean and fair system. Until that happens, the ordinary Pakistani has full right to do road justice or mob justice to the culprits. All bribe seeking police officers should have their hands chopped off by a crowd and you will see other officers fearing before taking bribes. All murderers and killers should be lynched on the spot by a crowd and you will see a drop in murder. The people get what they deserve. Until the common Pakistani rises like the Libyans, Egyptians, etc, nothing will change in Pakistan. and remember that 'an eye for an eye' is pure justice and the principle of Islamic Law. By not having an eye for an eye rule, you have the current situation in Pakistan- innocents are blind in both eyes and the aggressors are two eyed and live without any fear.

Ibrahim | 12 years ago | Reply @Asad: Dude, stay on topic, would you? She is entitled to her opinion and has stated it very correctly and in a professional manner. Where do you get off telling her that wearing a scarf is or is not enough? How do you know what her understanding of her religion is? That is not for you to decide, so stick to the topic at hand. She is not speaking of the family at hand or this particular incident. She is speaking of the average joe and his need to get into a brawl just because its taking place. Not asking why, not asking who, but because he thinks its his moral obligation to teach whoever is being beaten a lesson. This is not the french revolution, its chaos and madness. The average joe does not and will not care about what the fight was about in the first place. Perhaps in this scenario it may be appear clear that they were rightfully angered by the corrupt official's mistake, costing a man his life. But do you know what that man was suffering from? Do you know why they were stopped? Do you know that would he have been able to make it to the hospital and be saved? No. Neither do I. So your saying that he deserves the death penalty is jumping to speculations, just as other people did. Remember the two brothers who were so brutally murdered in Sialkot? All that crowd and no one lifted a hand. But there was something else there that should make us shudder in our boots. Something that may have slipped passed among many of us. The clip showed a young 10 pr 11 year old kid first hesitating, then picking up a stick to strike the already beaten boys lying on the street. Did he know what they did wrong? No. He did it because he learned everyone else was doing it. Is that part of the revolution? This is and was the main point of Ms. Ilyas's post. That the tendency of leaping before looking, of dishing it out our blind of justice blindly, by becoming the executioner without knowing little or no facts, will be the undoing of us all, and sadly, she may be right. A man or woman is not reflected by the clothes they wear, its what they do that matters. I hope you will think about that before going off topic again. To the author: I apologize on behalf of those who would deem it right to bring in someone's apparel to make a point, which was not even being discussed in the first place.

Rehan Ali | 12 years ago | Reply @Asad: "wearing a scarf is not enough sister. you have to truly understand the spirit of Islam. and Islam commands believers to stop evil, if they can." The rudeness was unnecessary. Baat sunne ka hosla paida karo. Revolution jihalat ka naam nahi bulke nazariye ka naam hai.

Ali | 12 years ago | Reply Talk about bringing a revolution in this society. Pathetic!

Rehan Ali | 12 years ago | Reply "...Lahore City Traffic Officer Captain (r) Mobin told journalists Asif stopped a car bearing registration number LED-7658 for violating traffic signals. Mobin claimed that Asif collected Rs 300 from the victims against a challan..." We should try to share both sides of the picture. What happened is saddening and especially the way things are dealt with in Pakistan we can't expect anything else. Can we elaborate on the other possible situation. What do most people do when they are stopped for traffic violation? They deny it and than try to argue with the law enforcer. When we behave in a civil manner and admit our fault the procedure is done with in 7-12 mins (know it from personal experience and 7 tickets). If a ticket had been issued it would have saved time and the driver who ended up paying PKR 300 would have had to pay PKR 500. Magar ab pachtai kya howat ab chiryan jug gain khait

reader | 12 years ago | Reply '..an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.' very true.. this is what i believe in.. i strongly condemn this barbaric behavior!

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