Sohaib
June 9, 2011, 7:10pm
63
Re: Rangers kill Innocent Man in Karachi
I am in no way justifying this cruel act by the rangers. This is a murder and the culprits should be prosecuted according the law. But there is more to it than the unprofessionalism of rangers in this story and it points out at bigger issues that are happening with law enforcement agencies in Karachi and the pressure that they face from city’s political force and other educated folks that back that pressure of that political party.
In the very beginning of the clip (that I saw yesterday about 4 hours from when it was first posted on a facebook page of a friend of mine who is a die hard fan of biggest political party that operates in the city and that person openly justifies bhatta khori and how youth is used by that party to collect bhatta), when this guy gets caught by the ranger in white plain clothe, his immediate reaction is to hide his face/identity as if he knew he is getting caught doing an act that he does not want to be associated with. It was later discovered that this guy was brother of a journalist and we can assume that he had at least some education and belonged to educated middle/lower middle class.
Then when they pull him aside, the guy says “Bhai Main tou Majboour houn, meri Majboouri thee” meaning he is trying to justify something that he knows he did wrong but he wants rangers to listen to his majboori.
As someone above me posted that this guy belongs to a gang and is known to have backing of MQM, was robbing some women in the park and rangers were informed of this and they caught him either running away from the scene or hiding.
Looking at it from rangers point of view, they come across people who do crimes like this all over the Karachi and once they are taken into custody, they call their political affiliations or their relatives who are in powerful positions to get them out of there and criminal goes without punishment and next day carries on with his crimes knowing that he will not have to face any consequences. Chances are that once in police station, a call was going to get made to the educated/middle class brother who happens to be a journalist who would have gotten him out or this kid was going to call someone from MQM and they would have gotten this kid out and very next day he would be doing exactly same thing.
Now the people who suffered from the hands from criminals like him, see that they report them to rangers/police, watch those people be taken away by rangers to police station (hoping that they are going behind the bars) and few days later they see the same criminal roaming around freely or even worst, get robbed by same criminal. The only thing that comes to those victims mind is that rangers are corrupt and they are taking bribes from this criminal and that is why this guy is robbing me again, next time they see that ranger’s mobile/vehicle, the pull him a side and burn his mobile/vehicle to take their anger out on him as according to them the criminal is free because of corruption on these group of rangers. If you are that ranger/policeman, how frustration situation is that? You did your job, caught the criminal, put him behind the bars and next day your vehicle got burned by people who, in your mind you helped a day before.
Once again, I am not justifying this murder and want these killers to be punished to the fullest. But I want to point out the bigger issue, that for lawlessness in Karachi, blame always goes to matric pass/fail police waala and they are always considered to be the scum of society but no one ever points out on how, when they do their job and catch the criminals, the political power of Karachi, shows the muscle of their educated middle class and get their foot soldiers back on street.
Nikema has made some really valid points.
It is an appalling incident and it shows lawlessness at its peak. Whatever the guy did, he deserved to be held to a trial or etc.
And I absolutely hate the media for showing the video again and again and again.. There is already some mixed feeligns for armed forces. And media is intensifying those feelings. All five fingers are not the same and media is once again proving to be what it actually is.. irresponsible!!!