Sialkot killing & The Shameless Us by OmEr Jamil (haqeeqat.org)

Even after smoking three consecutive sticks I fail to imagine, let alone picture as to how would Hafiz Mughees Sajjad Butt be feeling- before surrendering his soul due to simultaneous clubbing- as his dear younger brother, his due responsibility to take care of and bring-back-home-safe, his cricket-mate, his bond-for-life little Muneeb Sajjad Butt had been brutally, barbarically beaten to death bleeding before his very eyes?

I had heard within I can’t blog this…

But I do have to blow-off. I don’t know why but I always have to…

These two young brothers from Mouza Buttar, Sialkot- Muneeb Sajjad Butt, 17, a student of 9th grade and his elder brother Hafiz Mughees Sajjad Butt, 19, of Intermediate, on a suspicious of armed robbery resulting in a murder near Haji Pura- were brutally clubbed to death by a heinous local mob consisting on 5/five amidst a circled crowd- and that’s just not it- catering also the shameless presence and endorsement of multiple law enforcement & rescue agencies i.e. Police and Rescue 1122!

Please be informed that both the brothers were killed on-spot while the Police men besides ensuring the due process of law, ensured their first-row presence amongst encircled crowd cold-heartedly listening to the helpless yet heart-tearing cries allowing the killing by not stopping the barbaric torture on both teenagers ‘slowly’ being dispatched to heavens, one after another. As the timeline of the footage keeps running while Muneeb is already dead and Mughees is being clubbed, several voices from the crowd even suggest bringing petrol to burn the brothers! Nobody even cared to raise a voice against tossing and further humiliation of the dead bodies… sadly!

I has always wondered if we have long lost the upholding of Amar bil ma’roof and Nahi an’il Munkir factors!

Also, while the tractor-trolley dragged both brothers’ dead-bodies around the city, it was escorted by a Police vehicle all the way to the square both Hafiz Mughees Sajjad Butt & Muneeb Sajjad Butt’s bodies were then hanged upside down. More disgustingly, the very tractor-trolley rode a police man too!!!

I believe they stood all so numb to such heinous an act extreme brutality and shame because they are accustomed to practising it regularly!

This, my friends, took place in Pakistan and that too, in the city if Iqbal! My existence here is shattered and my association with a nation such people have acquaintance with is ashamed, so very much ever since. I feel much more insecure now, just like Maho had said!

Please note that I neither establish anywhere the innocence of both brother nor I reject the accusations upon them- of murdering Bilal and leaving three others wounded- as made by the mob while it clubbed them to death for the same. Because there were aired different versions ever since the news and because I was not there and I didn’t witness the context either, hence I must not benefit from this the murdered brothers for if I do, this wouldn’t be a fair write-up you’re reading! It is the matter of comprehensive investigation and then, courts of law! On my part and in my personal opinion, it would be too soon to weigh. Let the investigators and judiciary come up with the verdict and we shall see the black & white. (Protesters on roads, please remember conducting a fair demonstration and NOT influenced by emotions!)

What I condemn here in this writing of mine is not the ‘innocents killed’ but for the ‘humanity butchered‘! Thick or thin, it doesn’t matter whatsoever Mughees & Muneeb’s crime be, there is no reason, no court, no law on planet earth and beyond that allows and justifies such barbaric an act that disgusts not just the humanity but the very existence of Mr. Human itself! I condemn not only the mob but also the crowd for its impotency! Below, a line taken from an editorial published in a local English newspaper questions well;

“Is this what we are? Savages??? So utterly bereft of a speck of humanity that a crowd of ordinary men are passive spectators to public murder?“

Too much barbarism our society have inherited- esp. the lower middle class in suburbs that is hardly even educated- I don’t really know from where in deed! May be, like some people suggest that such brutality has been taught by the Police (here, here, here, here, here and alas, here) & Army (here) and some say that the continuous state neglect helped develop such extreme frustration resulting into violence, brutality and extremism but I believe- in my personal opinion- it is unfair to blame others for one’s own deficiencies, deprivations and misconducts.

In India, which is always highlighted for minority suppression, incidents of similar sort are often reported- I know of and possess footages of many- but not to this extent of barbaric extremism esp. to Hindus, in my knowledge at least. In India, it’s a different story because it mostly happens due to prevalent Religious & Racial Intolerance and that too for most of their religious scriptures and organizations uphold so. But the Sialkot brutality took place due to Human Intolerance, I must say which most of Pakistan nowadays is getting more at the verge of, by each day unfortunately! I so suggest that we the citizens should really look deep in to this matter rather than wasting time & energy in pessimist protests and negative criticism!

Anyway, how would these illiterate people know when they cannot even study the Holy Quran themselves hence follow the Maulvi’s version whatever it is, they just believe it for they can neither verify nor challenge it due to their own ignorance (well, that’s one of the major reasons religious extremism/terrorism still prevails in Pakistan!)… they don’t really care!

And neither do we; you & I WE!!! Because we can go on viewing all newspapers, websites, blogs and videos that add a spice to the criticism and condemn out aloud the incompetence of Government or System, but we can’t ourselves take an initiative to heal the wounded society! When it comes to clearing the mess we caused, we’re just too busy with our lives and jobs and friends and stuff to bother even a little for what’s our own and requires immediate attention!

Like the most of youth nowadays, we can go on blocking roads, disrupting traffic holding demonstrations protesting aloud ‘aggressively‘ demanding a tough lesson for the accused mob, but hardly could even a single voice be heard yelling for a righteous call for educating & promoting peace. Likewise, most of our loud media goes on bombarding the disgusting video 24/7 spreading yet-invisible chaos at the back of our mind, but there’s no talk-show held to discuss the cure for our very society for nothing else than what’s spicy and sells quick is all it’s (our premature media’s) concern. (Please acknowledge that the ridiculously repeated bombardment of these videos by our media hurdles bad our call for international donations in these critical times of national disaster; flood that is! I have also got in touch with the Federal Minister Rehman Malik on this who agreed to my stance and- I hope- would further advise the media power houses to stop such stupidities.)

Friends! criminals would inshaAllah and ultimately be punished like they’re supposed to, but shall their punishment eradicate such brutality, extremism and this barbarism we possess within?

You tell me, should we only seek for the toughest punishment, shall it end the pain you & I felt from this incident all for once?

Shall we do nothing about it and get immune towards such occurrings?

Well if you think so, we’d stand as just another face in the same crowd who equally participated in this lynching by not doing anything to stop it!