Adil Najam
This is a shocking picture.
I too was shocked to see it right on the top half of the front page of Dawn (29 December, 2006). I was even more shocked to read the details of this incident that took place in Rawalpindi:
Police broke up a protest demonstration organised by family members and relatives of missing persons, badly beating and arresting several of them after they tried to march to the GHQ to present a memorandum to the Vice-Chief of the Army Staff. More than a hundred people, mostly women and children belonging to the families of the disappeared, arrived in groups to the square in front of the Flashman’s Hotel. According to the organisers of the protest, the participants had planned to peacefully march to the GHQ to register their concern over the detention of their loved-ones, who they say, have been in the custody of the army and secret agencies for the last several years.
Eyewitnesses said the trouble began when a heavy contingent of police, led by SP Yasin Farooq, SP Muhammad Azam and DSP Rana Shahid, pushed some of the protesters inside the hotel’s boundary wall, shoving and manhandling them badly. After some time more protesters arrived and started shouting slogans against the police. Those who had been detained inside the hotel also came out to join them. This led to skirmishes between police and the protesters. According to the eyewitnesses, the protest took a turn for the worse when the police stripped a young man, Mohammad bin Masood, the son of missing Masood Janjua. The witnesses said even then the police continued to drag him, finally throwing him into a police van.
The incident enraged other protesters, especially the man’s young sister, who started crying and flagellating herself. The police also shoved aside the father of a missing man and later arrested him. After having failed to march to the GHQ, the protesters blocked the Mall Road for about three hours. Police and protesters fought running battles for some time. Scared by police highhandedness and arrests, a young girl and a small child lost consciousness and fell on the road, the eyewitnesses said.
Unbowed and determined, the protesters refused to leave the place, end the protest and open the road until the arrested men were released. Later, on an assurance from SP Azam that the detained men would be released, the protesters dispersed peacefully. However, the younger brother of detained Mohammad bin Masood told Dawn by telephone that his brother had not been released by the police. The eyewitnesses said that besides an old man and Mohammad bin Masood, several women had been detained and not released till late in the evening.
The report of the incident in The News, adds the following:
Placard-holding women and children held a demonstration close to Flashmans Hotel here. But the police force stopped the procession going beyond Flashmans Hotel. “We planned a ‘freedom walk’ and wanted to hand over a letter to the vice chief of army staff in the General Headquarters (GHQ),� said Amina Masood, whose husband Masood Ahmed Janjua has been missing since July 30, 2005. Masood is among at least 105 persons missing from all over the country during the last five to six years. The SSPs, SHOs and dozens of constables from various police stations of Rawalpindi were deployed at the roadsides and tried their best to disperse the procession that lasted nearly two hours.
A handful of policewomen were also present at the rally and helped their male colleagues once the protesting women tried to walk towards the GHQ. “Do we belong to the same country,� questioned one aggrieved woman from an SHO when she was stopped. “Do we have arms in our hand? Why are you stopping us?� she shouted. The women shouted slogans and demanded the release of their males before Eid-ul-Azha. Some of the women and their children were even crying. In an unfortunate incident that could easily have been avoided by the security personnel a young man, Mohammad bin Masood, son of Masood Ahmed, was dragged into a police van and forcibly driven away from the scene.
The shame here is not on the young man without his shalwar. It is on the police for allowing this to happen. And in some ways it is all our shame.
My first reaction on seeing the picture was that maybe the young man’s shalwar fell off in the scuffle. The News story calls it “unfortunate incident that could easily have been avoided”; Dawn, however, suggests that he was “stripped.” In either case, the indignity inflicted on the young man is reprehensible. Even more reprehensible is that 105 individuals are ‘missing’ without their families having any news of them.
Here at ATP we try to be as fair and even-handed as possible. We have praised the police in a number of posts when it has done well (here and here). We try to highlight what is blatantly wrong (here and here) when we see it. Silly attempts to spread lies is one thing; disappearances are quite another. They do not do anyone any good and cause irreparable harm to the reputation of the country, and to all of us. To those who worry about Pakistan’s image internationally, we have asked before, and we ask again: Who is giving Pakistan a bad name?
But this is not about ‘image.’ This is about the reality of disappearances. If these people have committed crimes, then let them be charged and presented in courts. And if they are not, then the guilt and the crime is not theirs, but of whoever holds them.
Link for above comment seems to be broken. here it is again:
[quote comment=”23227″]
So untill we qualify democracy we should have dictatorship?
Isn’t the corrupt democracy a result of years of martial law or this kind of democracy always brought by dictators.[/quote]
Is it? Its funny that you call Musharraf’s Govt dictatorship? You all agree that there is no martial law right now - correct? What would you call Zia’s regime? Nazis?
How can you achieve “democracy” when the environment is not right? If it takes an honest and sincere “dictatorship” to create the environment, then let be it.
Civilians obviously dont have the discipline nor the balls to counter Sardars and their peasants and many other important issues - they are part of the problem. How do you explain that when the Sardars are part of the problem and sitting in the government? You seriously think their peasants can vote for Sardar other than theirs? Wouldn’t that be rigging, or aristocratic, or cheating?
Also they have known to have problems with country’s defense department. Rather than working together, they create rifts, promote generals for political gains, and politicize army - their own created monster that comes back and bites them on their asses…
A statesman who understands all this whether army or civilian needs get these out of the way, work towards creating positive and workable political environment and then get out of the way when its time. We are not there yet rather in the middle of this process…
Daktar, I am happy to see that this matter is settled: you good I bad.
Glass is either half empty or half full. I agree to disagree but can’t accept someones imposed views upon me - Whether I condemn (I don’t defend it rather refuse to condemn it) it or not is my problem and not yours and you should be able to accept it, since I accept your reasonings. Isn’t this what your democracy is all about? Lets see some demonstration of what you preach…
Also will be keeping a running total of condemnations from your types once the democracy [read: aristocracy] “returns” [read: farse] to Pakistan. Tell me your democracy is so decent to honour Supreme Court of Pakistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sajjad_Ali_Shah#The_A ttack_on_Supreme_Court“>Supreme Court Attack
I wonder what you would have said or done if this happened on Musharraf’s watch.
[quote comment=”23070″]
If you believe that democracy will work, then go ahead and start educating 100 million illiterate Pakistanis and end the feudalism, slavery and get rid of your servants and sweepers child labour and the cooking mai - sure after all that we may have a chance but before you can even talk about it, you need to qualify it first.[/quote]
So untill we qualify democracy we should have dictatorship?
Isn’t the corrupt democracy a result of years of martial law or this kind of democracy always brought by dictators.
[quote comment=”22953″]Whatelse is so right or righteous about Pakistan or Pakistani citizens[/quote]
The question is not what is ‘right’ about Pakistanis, the question is what is so ‘wrong’ with some of us that we cannot even call something that is so blatantly wrong, wrong. Thank you for giving us a demonstration.
No surprise, then, that so much of the world thinks we are violence prone. You are right, police brutality happens in many places (like rape). What does NOT happen in most civilized places is otherwise decent citizens defending such brutality (or, in the other case, a President accusing the rape victim of benefiting from her rape).
Luckily, as the comments here show, most Pakistanis are not so callous as to defend such a practice.
PLEASE tell me what is democracy and if it exists anywhere? India? USA?
Jamhooriat woh nizam hai jis main
Bandon ko gina jaata hai, toula naheen jaata!!!
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/392 62
Jalal-e-Badshahi ho ya jamhoori tamasha ho!!!
And for supporting Musharraf - well there are people who supported likes Jen. Diar and Henry Kiss.!!!
Ghalib, suit yourself but do not tell me what if it happend to me or us - you don’t know me from Adam.
You are for corrupt democracy and I may be percieved as being a supporter of rational “dictatorship”, although I don’t see this govt as such; either rational or dictatorship. But to say democracy is the solution is something you don’t know yourself - as there never has been a democracy in Pakistan, just aristocracies.
If you believe that democracy will work, then go ahead and start educating 100 million illiterate Pakistanis and end the feudalism, slavery and get rid of your servants and sweepers child labour and the cooking mai - sure after all that we may have a chance but before you can even talk about it, you need to qualify it first.
Mr Abizaib!
i can see u rationalising one wrong with the other!2 wrongs wont make a right!!this is a minor issue as it does not concern u!but it cud have been us!ironic to see ur reply!one dictator came with islam an this is one with opposite thout!playing with nations ideology!an yet u say we are awake right?there are issues but who will let u settle them as if ull go out the same that happend to the poor man will be ur plight!i can assure u on this!Dictators arent our solution,democracy no matter how corrupt like with our nieghbours is the solution!
People disapperaing in Pakistan is a serious issue and a big problem and our countries agencies like the infamous ISI and MI are behind it and definately Musharraf knows where these people are and what happened to them. This protest should countinue, and people have right to know.
There are no good and bad dictators, only dictators.