Another day, another video of a killing

Point-blank shootings of the unarmed, Sialkot lynchings, Quetta shoot-outs - what is going on in our heads?

Ali Syed June 09, 2011
I saw the video of Sarfaraz Shah being shot by a Rangers official at 11am this morning.

The immediate feelings that went through my mind:
Fear

Anger

Mostly confusion

Over the course of the day, I have seen the gruesome video pop up again and again and again on sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook (much like the Sialkot lynching video), showing Shah pleading to the Rangers to take him to the hospital after being shot twice at point blank, with no one coming to his help.

His final words begging for someone to take him to the hospital continue to echo in my mind hours after I have seen the video, and I fail to see the "justice" the officials claim to have meted out.

Unfortunately, other than his family and close friends, most of us will forget about  both the video and the boy, perhaps when another heinous crime takes place.

The brother of the deceased, who happens to be a journalist, rightly pointed out in a television appearance that if the footage of this incident was not caught on tape, the killers would have gotten off scot-free. I believe this may unfortunately happen despite the video evidence. There have been footages with damning proof in the past – the Sialkot lynching footage and the more recent Kharotabad shooting footage.

What happened to the people involved in the murder of brothers Muneeb and Mughees?

What happened to the numerous personnel of the Frontier Corps and the Police who emptied their magazines on the unarmed foreigners in Quetta (one of whom was pregnant)?

Perpetuating hatred

What can one make out of this incident? A colleague, after witnessing the video, tweeted:
“Who will protect us from the protectors?”

Many are angry at this incident. In fact, some are even calling for the head of the person who shot Shah. I work on a website, where hundreds of people leave comments every day, calling for ‘shooting,’ ‘killing,’ and ‘hanging’ criminals as soon as possible. What we have to think about is if such a mindset is responsible for such incidents taking place to start with.

What was going on in the head of the head of the Ranger who shot Shah, I don’t know. I don’t even know what was going on in the head of the policemen who did nothing while men savagely murdered the young boys in Sialkot last year. But, what I do know is that we have become a people who do not trust the justice system, and as such we have among us those who do not shy away from delivering their own sense of justice, by themselves, with sticks or guns.

Officials have informed that the people involved have been arrested and a judicial inquiry will be made in the case. Just yesterday I read a letter from a granddaughter asking the Chief Justice about the Lahore attacks on an Ahmadi gathering of last year.

In a country where it takes years to convict terrorists, what is going to happen in this case, time will tell, eventually, maybe.
WRITTEN BY:
Ali Syed
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (67)

Sadaf | 12 years ago | Reply @SAJJAD SARWAR: Sajjad you are Absolutely Right...
aik larki | 12 years ago | Reply THIS WAS COLD BLOODED MURDER! i cant believe people who're trying to justify what the rangers did.
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