A SPATE of lynchings and mob attacks in Karachi last week has exposed the tense state of a society in which people are willing to take extreme action on a mere suspicion, as well as the failure of the state in keeping the peace. Amongst the gruesome events was the murder of two telecommunication company workers in the low-income Machhar Colony area. The men were in the area to inspect a mobile tower when a mob pounced on them, suspecting them to be child kidnappers. Ayman Javed and Ishaq Mahar were beaten to death and their vehicle torched. In another lynching, a suspected robber was beaten to death after he had shot and killed Shehryar Nazeer, a teenage shopkeeper in Gulistan-i-Jauhar. In a third incident, tragedy was barely averted when a mob stormed a police station in New Karachi when rumours spread that a mentally challenged woman had allegedly committed a sacrilegious act. If extra contingents of police and Rangers had not arrived to control the situation, the mob would have taken matters into its own hands, with grim consequences.

These disturbing events are not the first of their kind and unless this alarming trend is addressed, they will sadly not be the last. A strange mix of circumstances and the negligence of the state sets the stage for such incidents. People are tense due to economic difficulties, while fear stalks the city thanks to an unabated wave of violent crime. Therefore, when the limits of patience are exceeded, people take the law into their own hands, while unscrupulous elements also exploit such situations. In the past, numerous incidents have occurred where mobs have murdered innocent people. In this regard, the Sindh government has suggested forming a ‘mob management police force’. This is a good idea if it is implemented, as rapid deployment can save innocent lives in delicate situations. Moreover, the suspects involved in the murder of the telecom workers, as well as all others implicated in lynchings, must be tried and punished.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2022