After Lynching of Two Brothers in Sialkot Town, Commentators in Pakistan Examine the Growing Talibanization of Pakistani Society

Following are excerpts from the Daily Times editorial:[7]

"There are times when our being even vaguely human comes into serious question. The barbarity on display in a shocking video doing the rounds on television screens across the country is one such example. Showing [the] two brothers... being brutally tortured, beaten with sticks and iron rods, dragged half-naked through the streets and then hung upside down where they draw their last breaths, the video is a morbid reminder of how we have lost all traces of our humanity. However, more shocking still is the fact that some 14 police officers stood guard whilst the torture and lynching took place, and instead of stopping the madness, they facilitated it as silent spectators and in keeping back the gathering crowds.

"It is said that the perpetrators dispensed with their own brand of vigilante justice against alleged dacoits but it has since been discovered that it was nothing more than an old grudge that was being settled by those accused of this horrendous crime. The fact that a complacent police force stood watch makes them key instruments in this most deplorable of brutal extra-judicial killings. The Supreme Court has taken suo motu notice of this heinous act and has sternly cautioned Sialkot District Police Officer Waqar Chauhan that he deserved to be suspended and sent to jail for nowhere in civilized society do such actions take place... While it is appreciated that the courts have taken immediate notice and have instructed an urgent response, mere dismissals and suspensions will simply not suffice.

"The callousness and depravity on display seemed like something from the Middle Ages. Is our society this barbaric and animalistic? Are we so uncivilized that, as individuals, we are dispensing Taliban-style murders in public? And for all those who witnessed the incident without trying to stop the crime, shame on them.

"Shame too on a police force so cold and callous that it stands by silently while two young boys get beaten to death, so inhumane that it beats people up with laathis [sticks] at a whim, and so cruel that peaceful demonstrations such as the one by the students of Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, are baton-charged and the protestors, including young girl students, are beaten black and blue.

"We have proved again and again that we have degenerated into a vile culture when left to our own devices. Pray that the punishment for these offenders fits the crime."

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Pakistani Academic Rasul Bakhsh Rais: "[The Sialkot Killings are] not Much Different from the Emerging Pattern of Violence in Pakistani Society…"

Following are excerpts from Rasul Bakhsh Rais's article:[8]

"How can one explain the lynching of two teenage brothers in broad daylight by a mob, while policemen stood on the sidelines watching the violent scene in a village near Sialkot? I don't have the stomach to watch the violent scenes on TV, and am at a loss for words to express the anguish over such acts, many of which go unreported since the eye of the camera cannot reach each and every victim.

"This is not the first time that innocent individuals have been targeted in such a brutal way in which tens and even hundreds of good Pakistanis, and this time, in the holy month of Ramadan have mercilessly ended two lives. It was not long ago that two Christian boys accused of blasphemy in yet another industrial city, Faisalabad, were gunned down by a fanatic while in police custody and on their way to court to clear their name.

"How many times a month do we hear about the murder of helpless young girls, mothers, sisters, and quite often wives to avenge honor? Crazy men driven by crazy ideas of honor hack women to death and walk around the earth tall with pride. What an uncivilized idea of restoring a family's honor it is. The killers in such incidents are not always illiterate. We have seen educated and well-placed families killing their women in order to restore their lost honor. How many of us remember the murder of a young lady doctor by such a family in [the city of] Multan some years back? It is not a question of short-term memory; we have become numb from witnessing so much violence in our society.

"The incidents of honor killings are largely underreported. I am familiar with many such murders from southern Punjab where wailing mothers over the honor killing of their daughters would be brutally hushed up, not even allowed to grieve and mourn the slaughter of their daughters, sometimes in front of their eyes.

"The recent incident [in Sialkot] is not much different from the emerging pattern of violence in Pakistani society where men in the street have assumed the rule of judge, jury and executioner. But it is unique in at least two respects. First, policemen were present on the scene, doing nothing. Reportedly, the mob kept torturing the boys for hours. It seems nobody showed any mercy, not even the policemen. If they felt intimidated by the crowd, they could have called in more police personnel to intervene and saved the two men. But saving lives was not on the minds of anyone among this violent Sialkot crowd.

"I am sure that there is good in every society and I keep searching for whatever good is there among us, but events like the gunning down of the Christians, lynching children in Sialkot or butchering women tells us that something has gone fundamentally wrong. We have seen yet another pattern of violence; young men on suicide missions exploding themselves in markets and mosques. Is it lack of faith in the police and administration of justice that people take law into their hands? I don't mean to be self-disparaging, but it seems we have lost our values, if we ever had them in the first place. In the present social chaos, our society has lost its humanity in allowing lives to be terminated in their prime by violent mobs."

Pakistani Socio-Linguist Abbas Zaidi: "Do We Human-Muslim-Pakistanis Not Lynch and Destroy Unarmed People...?"

Following are excerpts from Abbas Zaidi's article:[9]

"In the backdrop of the public lynching and then hanging of [the two] brothers... in Sialkot on August 15, a journalist writing in an English language daily asked the following questions about the murderers: (1) Are they human? (2) Are they Muslim? and (3) Are they really Pakistani? The writer thought they were none of these.

"These questions are evidence of the lowest depth of misery, hollowness, and dishonesty to which some Pakistani journalists have taken their profession. Of course, these murderers are human, Muslim, and Pakistani. The hollowness of the word 'really' reminds me of Kurtz's outburst of 'The horror, the horror!' in Conrad's [novel] Heart of Darkness. Why is there so much hype about this lynching in both the media and the judiciary? Is it something that came out of outer space and so we cannot accept it? Do we human-Muslim-Pakistanis not lynch and destroy unarmed people while the entire nation and national institutions react from blatantly cheering on to finding crooked justifications for our sins and crimes because 'Muslims cannot do it!,' a mantra on the lips of everyone from Pakistani President Asif Zardari the secular and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani the reconciliator to opposition leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [who wanted to be declared] the Amir-ul-Momineen [i.e. Leader of the Faithful] and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif the servant-in-chief? Think about the journalists, the Islamists, the retired and quasi-retired bureaucrats and generals, and the list will go on ad infinitum.

"To the above three questions, add a highly arrogant claim that we the human-Muslim-Pakistanis make without fail while raising an eyebrow at non-Muslims: 'We the Muslims never disrespect a corpse!'

"The Sialkot lynching is a mirror image of another lynching that we have conveniently forgotten. This takes us to 1994 when the Taliban, made and molded in and by Pakistan, invaded the UN-protected enclave in Kabul where they lynched Dr. Najibullah [the then President of Afghanistan] and his brother. After lynching them publicly, just like their brethren have done in Sialkot, the Taliban hung the corpses of the two brothers and mutilated them; they even chopped off their private parts. At that time hundreds of people cheered on the Taliban as they disrespected the two corpses just like the hundreds of people did in Sialkot; the only difference being that there were no mobiles phones available at that time. Again, it is our 'Pakistani' Taliban who last year dug up a pir [mystic] from his grave and then hanged him."

"The Sialkot Lynching is Not Spontaneous; It is in Fact a Great Tribute Paid to General Zia-ul-Haq Who Created the Islamo-Fascist Mindset... [in Pakistan]"

"The Sialkot lynching is not spontaneous. It is in fact a great tribute paid to [former military dictator] General Zia-ul-Haq who created the Islamo-fascist mindset with the help of Arabian money and Pakistani-sectarian manpower. The Zia-sponsored and Islamist-created curriculum taught in Pakistan to this day has created a vision in which Muslims of a certain denomination are the only superior people in the world whose divine mission is to put the entire world on the righteous path by speech or sword, depending on how quiescent or stubborn the people targeted for conversion are. Because Muslims can do no wrong, whatever they do is right. General Zia and his accomplices created an Islam that was unheard of in Pakistan, and since then that Islam has been creating us the human-Muslim-Pakistanis.

"Thus, the very fundamental motivating principle of human-Muslim-Pakistanis is that law has no meaning if it hinders our desires. We also know that the state of Pakistan has morphed into impotence, and accountability and rule of law are nonexistent. From 1977 when General Zia dismissed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto [and executed him on court order] up to the Sialkot lynching, very few serious crimes have been punished. Crime has become an easy choice because people know that (1) they will never get justice, and (2) crime is not punished.

"Unless you are hopelessly poor and unconnected, you are above the law. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the prime minister, is hanged and Benazir Bhutto assassinated, and their murderers live honorably; lawyers assault journalists, judges, and policemen, but the judiciary takes no action; policemen kill innocent people and drag their dead bodies in the streets like trophies and are decorated with medals of bravery; journalists can demonize people at will and not be held responsible; murderous fatwas (religious edicts) are proclaimed publicly and the bloodthirsty mullahs [clerics] are addressed as ulema (scholars); billions are loaned from the banks and never returned and no questions asked. What message do people get?

"In January this year, Prime Minister Gilani said on the floor of parliament that despite the Supreme Court and parliament, the army cannot be held accountable for anything. Are we repeatedly not told and taught by the media, mullahs, and textbooks that we the human-Muslim-Pakistanis are soldiers of Islam?"