ANOTHER victim has been claimed by the lynch mob. This time, the horrific event took place on Thursday in the Madyan district of Swat, where a man was burned alive on suspicion of sacrilege. The victim’s detention by the police did not stop the mob from enacting their own “justice.”
The unhappy person, reportedly from Punjab, was accused of desecrating property while on a visit to the area. There were reportedly calls from nearby mosques for people to assault the police station where the man was being kept while the police were dragging him away.
The next events are the stuff of nightmares: the victim was burned alive while the mob set fire to the police station because the officers would not give him up.
The shocking regularity of these kinds of crimes has made such heinous behavior the standard in Pakistan. Most blasphemy-related cases involve lynchings; in other instances, suspected criminals are shot or beaten to death by crowds. The diminishing authority of the state is reflected in both forms of “mob justice.” People take it upon themselves to deliver “justice” in cases of suspected criminal lynchings, which are more common in Karachi, since law enforcement has not been able to stop street violence. However, in a number of these cases, victims have been wrongly labeled criminals in order to settle scores, resulting in the deaths of innocent individuals. The employment of questionable blasphemy accusations is a more complicated phenomena, where radicalism, illiteracy, and the state’s weakness have combined to produce a volatile environment.
The unfortunate person who was charged with sacrilege in Swat was not the first to suffer a terrible fate as a result of unsubstantiated claims. Priyantha Kumara, Mashal Khan, and numerous more came before him. More recently, a Christian man wounded by a crowd last month in Sargodha, where he was accused of blasphemy, passed away. On the other hand, on the basis of false accusations of blasphemy, rioters ransacked and desecrated multiple churches in Jaranwala last year.
The bad news is that it might take years, if not decades, for a larger, society-wide counter-extremism strategy to be successful. That being said, there is an urgent need to prosecute those responsible for killing and injuring others based on thin accusations. There are no short cuts; the rot is severe.
Certain actions are apparent, like controlling the influential hatemongers who have been allowed free reign in society. This is the main challenge facing the state, assuming it chooses to accept it. at addition to distributing comparable messages from the pulpit, other actions can involve teaching coexistence and tolerance at seminaries and schools.
The terrifying alternative to doing nothing, which seems to be the state’s favored course of action, is the establishment of mob rule.
