Dear reader, online ads enable us to deliver the journalism you value. Please support us by taking a moment to
LAHORE: A policeman has been suspended for bringing a case of attempted murder against a nine-month old boy and forcing the crying infant to appear in court, officials said Friday.
Baby Mohammad Musa, along with other members of his family, was booked for throwing rocks at gas company officials carrying out an anti-theft inspection in the low-income Ahata Thanedaran neighbourhood of Lahore on Feb 1, the family's lawyer Chaudhry Irfan Sadiq told AFP.
Inspector Kashif Muhammad, who attended the alleged crime scene and has since been suspended, wrote in his report that it was a case of attempted murder.
Appearing in a packed court room with around 30 others accused in the case on Thursday, Musa was seen crying as his grandfather Muhammad Yasin, a 50-year-old labourer, held him on his shoulder.
He later drank milk from a bottle as Yasin fielded questions from reporters.
“Everyone in the court was saying 'How can such a small child be implicated in any case'? What kind of police do we have?” Yasin said.
He accused the police of fabricating the charges because they were colluding with a rival party who wanted to see the accused evicted from their land.
Critics say Pakistan's notoriously corrupt police force often trump up false charges either to extract bribes or because they have been paid off.
Judge Rafaqat Ali Qamar ordered the inspector to be suspended and granted the child bail, though he will have to appear at the next hearing on April 12.
But Sadiq, the lawyer, said the charges against the child should have been dropped.
“The court should have simply referred the minor's case to high court for dropping of the charges against the innocent child and acquit him from the case as the minimum criminal responsibility age is seven,” Sadiq told AFP.
Pakistan last year approved raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from seven to 12 years, except for in terrorism cases.
For more live updates, follow Dawn.com's official news Instagram account @dawn.today
Comments (28) Closed
Children under 12 are doli incapax - legally incapable of committing a crime. Guess the police officers need some basic education. Why has the judge asked the kid to appear before the court again, guess he too needs some common sense in breakfast.
@Ahmer Jamil Khan: Judges are the most corrupt people in Pakistan.. this judge also needs to be suspended for asking the kid to appear again. this country needs to start holding corrupt judges responsible for their actions.
This Judge should have thrown the case out. However, in feudal controlled, khakhi dominated and goonda infested Pakistan where the three have colluded under the umbrella of democracy even this is commendable. We need governance in Pakistan.
Senseless. How low can it get? Reflects mentality of accusers and their ilk.
Senseless. How low can it get? Reflects mentality of accuser. Should be dismissed from service!
@Ahmer Jamil Khan: god bless the Pakistani justice system!!!!!!!! Pakistan Zindabad!!!!!!
This judge should also be banned for life from practicing law. Pakistan seems to be a country of insane and dishonest people irrespective of education and social status. How low the people of a country can go? Simply incomprehensible!
It seems Pakistan is a country full of jokers, starting from the police to the judge and probably all the way up to the top. God help this place.
Very poor legal system and poor police officers!! Is this Political as well?
The child is lucky he did not get accused of blasphemy.
Folks. It is nothing but the frustration of our judiciary system. Since nothing can be done against those all powerful and mighty oligarch. They are just letting their frustration out on children. How low one can get. They have no remorse no resentment asking the boy to reappear again. Such s shameful act
Don't be upset. time is coming when there will be no fixed age to marry a girl child, and then maybe, there will be no fixed age to murder some one..
Hahahahahahaha...sad!!!!!! No wonder the uneducated in Pakistan join the Police in Pakistan!
@Khanm: What frustration? They get paid family holidays in Europe from the powerful and wealthy.
Pakistanis make sure they are on global "headline news" everyday with their foolish act.
Everyone blames Police, what about the stupid Judge? Judiciary is made up of stupidest lawyers with political connections. This Judge must be fired.
"Judge Rafaqat Ali Qamar ordered the inspector to be suspended and granted the child bail." This judge does not know the law. A baby cannot be charged. Period. How does this judge forces this family to post bail? Under what law. When charging baby is a legal impossibility then why bail? Oh the bay might hide behind the door.
This news has spread around the globe - I first read it in Fox News in the U.S. I know some people can be stupid - but this is beyond stupidity! If this Police Officer was trying to make a joke out of it - as I cannot ever believe he could be serious in charging a 9 month old, he should have thought of the repercussions. Not only he shamed himself, but now that this news is all over the world, Pakistan has been brought into the limelight. I believe for his act, he should not only be suspended, but reprimanded.
Why has the policeman not been fired or dismissed ? What is this suspension supposed to mean ? Does it mean, carry on with incompetent and corrupt police force ? This is the problem of Pakistan. They never take decisive and corrective action. Basically, Pakistanis and their Govt. is incomkpetent and gutless to the core !
VIctimization of the innocent, senseless persecution of the poor. Stupidity and corruption go hand in hand.
This is the intelligence level of our police. I can see he wasn't the only man who did it. There must be half dozen other policemen or officers who agreed with him and helped him. His immediate boss and his immediate boss should be fired, if not suspended with him. This is indeed a horrible image of our police.
@Ahmer Jamil Khan: Here we are trying to raise the standard of education among the illiterate but it seems that even the literate need some grooming in understanding that common sense should prevail when imparting justice. The news has been picked up by all foreign media and you can imagine the comments and laughs we are getting for the way we handle things especially in law related matters. No wonder Pakistanis are ridiculed whereever they go. Here the judge should sent back to law school.
Well done "Baji Police" killers roam the streets but infants are in the dock. If people make joke of us we should not be upset.
@IKE: Judges don't arrest people, police does. If this incompetent police officer had not charged a "NINE month old infant" with attempted murder, the judge would not have had anything to do with it!
@Ahmer Jamil Khan: well said
Commenters failed to read the article, AFP is sensationalizing the issue. Criminals were throwing rocks at gas company officials endangering their lives. If the rocks had hot the officials on the head it would be a murder or attempted murder charge. The home in question under investigation for gas theft was clearly trying to discourage the officials by throwing rocks at the officials. Smart aleck home owners tried to deflect their criminal conduct saying the nine month old child threw the rocks. The police officer was correct to charge the child with criminal conduct and let the judge decide what the actual facts were. It was the judges decision, not the police officers decision, not to prosecute the child, however the child was in the custody of the parents, and if he had thrown the rocks the legal culpability would fall on the parents for being criminally negligent in the custody of the child. Again the commenters are irrational lacking in common sense and knowledge of the law.
@AJamal: probably it is their inner quilt. if not frustration..Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt.... i am not too sure about any thing any more
Way to go Pakistan, becoming the laughing stock of the world once more, wow what a society.