“Something is going to happen to you”, Karachi knife attacker whispered these words to one of the victims before stabbing her. His motives and beliefs still remain unknown but this assumed psychopath has just given a face to the implicit hatred and biased, so many people hold against women in our patriarchal society. Whatever he meant from ‘something’ can only be assumed to be the fear he wanted his victims to live with. A thin man, aged 20-29, appears to be 5 feet, 7-9 inches tall riding a red motorcycle, started these attacks on September 25 from Gulshan-e-Johar and its adjoining areas and then expanded his it to Rashid Minhas and Gulshan-e-Iqbal. His only target is to threaten women ignoring any other differences. He attacks women from all age groups, educational and family backgrounds. The attacker who has become invisible for the police forces rightly depicts the insane mindset of the society regarding women. This lone attacker has threatened women to leave their homes and to walk freely while he himself roams around freely, gradually expanding his route. The police who remain in dark about his ‘belief system’ have pronounced him a ‘psychotic person’. Based on this assumption no terrorism charges have been invoked against him. It can be justified in a way that people who threaten the freedom of the women cannot be termed as terrorists; otherwise the patriarchal society will have to be referred as the ‘terrorist society’. The recent attacks also point out to one of the worst practices of our society regarding women. Culture of police stations is still not considered to be safe and the first three attacks that initially went unreported speak rightly of this flaw. The police was informed by the doctor and the victims remained reluctant to speak about these attacks. ‘Blaming the victim’ syndrome has become so pervasive in our society that it mutes the victims even at such brutalities. Heavy traffic, busy roads and police deployment couldn’t even compete with his insanity against women. No CCTV footage until now has proven to be fruitful and women are still not advised to leave their places after evening. Reward of Rs 500, 000 for anyone providing information leading to the arrest of the suspect remains to be a last hope for the exhausted police force. Until then women are directed not to feel free at all.
