A few days ago I highlighted this wrong, but today after after seeing photos of policemen mercilessly beating an unarmed lady, I am again left speechless at this shameful violence.
We at ATP have long worried about the senselessness of the violence (physical, psychological, verbal, social) that seems to keep growing in our society. All violence is bad, violence by the state is especially disturbing.
We strongly condemn this police brutality. Whoever is ordering such treatment of protesters is definitely taking people away from the ideals of Pakistan. How do you expect this poor lady (or her family or anyone seeing this) to trust the state after getting such a thrashing at the hands of the states law-enforcers? Those who are responsible to safeguard our dignity.
Police reform is the cry of the day. They absolutely need a crash course in human dignity and how to tackle protesters in a civilized way. Mercilessly beating ladies (or on anyone as a matter of fact) is inhuman and not part of our culture, or of any culture. No matter what one thinks about the protesters or what they are protesting, this violence by the police is wrong and shameful. We all must condemn it.
Police or their higherups should see how much anger is building up in people who are not afraid of confronting them with bare hands. This anger needs a channel such as allowing peaceful protest or it will spill out in wrong kind of violence as it probably happened the other day in Multan.
Whether we agree with protesters or not, peaceful protest is their right. Treat humans – all humans, everywhere – with dignity. If we do not, then our own dignity is compromised.
@Omar
The problem with the argument that why other institutions of the state are not responding to Musharraf’s brutalities, is that the other institutions that you have referred to actually belong to the same super class: the Executive. The Executive under the command of Musharraf is right now working without any checks and balances. The only other pillars of state that can check the excesses of the ececutive are under siege or dissolved: the Judiciary and the Legislature. Media is sometimes portrayed as the fourth pillar of state, but it can not check the excesses of the state. It can only report them, which it is trying its best to do under tyrranical Musharraf and his executive.
Well its good that the students are coming out into the streets of Islamabad. These policemen can only beat a small number of people and its not easy beating either. It takes a lot of energy and their arms must ache for a couple of days at least. If larger number of students come out into the streets, Army might be called in to stop them. But that would be the third Martial Law and won’t be imposed by Musharraf but his new COAS.
Remember the 1989 Tianamen Square incident. There the students put up camps for days. I wonder if Pakistani students would do something similar, say in front of the Parliament House, the Supreme Court, the Presidency or the residence, illegally occupied by Musharraf, of the COAS. I read a book on that event in China and the author said that at the time of the student riots, the high command of the Communist Party was holding a very important meeting. And it was decided then that unless China sets on a path of very high growth rates the Communist Party would be kicked out of office by force. So such events cause their own effects. I hope that these events also snowball into something more significant.
I would like to ask if we our really surprised at this behavior by the Police? And should we really blame these constables for doing what they did?
I’ll answer my first question by stating the obvious. We are under martial law (or psuedo martial law at this point), which means that our government as a whole chose to break the law by suspending the constitution. Once that happened all bets were off. I would submit that once Paksitan’s government took that step, it is no surprise that individual organs of the state abrogated their moral and ethical obligations to the people of Pakistan.
To answer my second question, from where I am sitting (very comfortably I may add and admittedly far away from the troubles of Pakistan), I find it hard to understand why there isn’t a single General, Beureaucrat, or Police official who chose to confront the government’s increasingly violent and illegal behavior (apart from the judges who chose not to take oath under the PCO). It is easy to blame Musharraf. But the steps he took were the steps of the government of Pakistan, which is made up of various institutions. Apart from the judiciary there wasn’t a single institution (or individuals from that institution) that tried to at least reason with the President. For instance Police officials chose to arrest people on a massive scale without giving consideration to the legality of their actions (and seemingly with great devotion and dedication). These constables are brutal in their response because the government and its minions have given either their implicit (through their own actions) or explicit approval.
Also it is clear when it comes to the judges the government is extremely intolerant of any opposing views and wants to make sure people get the message (just check out how Musharraf bristles at the mention of the judges during interviews).
Anyways great post and thank you for highlighting this shameful episode.
If my memory serves my right, this same Nasir Aftab was reported to be drunk driving in F-10 a couple of months ago.
AM:
The protestors were indeed brutally beaten up and some of them even have fractured bones. I personally know some of the protestors who are not affiliated with any of the political parties. Quite frankly, your comment that the police might not have beaten them badly was in very poor taste. I hope you don’t need to experience a similar police beating yourself in order to realize this.
I am pasting below the contents of an e-mail which I got from one of the protestors (he is not affiliated with any political party):
“I apologize for not being able to write more details or in better language. Have 2 fractured fingers and back got real bad thrashing. I am still amongst the luckier ones. We still don’t have details on the number but many got beaten up with cracked skulls, bleeding noses, and in broken bones. Many are still in jail and the whereabouts of a few are still unknown.
Our peaceful rally was once again stormed by the police. After being beaten up thrice by these policemen students had brought sticks for their own self defense. We were first charged at when we were trying to go to the CJ’s house to show solidarity. Due to the traffic on the street and our numbers (about 1000 protesters with 200 odd with flags) we retaliated and got the police running back.
The second time they charged at us on the orders of ASP Nasir Aftab the students were able to push the police back. Nasir Aftab himself was seen beating up women on which a few students beat him up. He was eventually sent to a hospital after a special ambulance came to take the injured policemen. Please note that when one of the female students tried to go the ambulance to get her brother taken to the hospital she was charged on by 6 policemen. We have no news of her whereabouts as of this point.
Once the police failed to stop the students from going to the CJ’s house an armored vehicle fired 30 odd tear gas shells. One shell hit a lawyer and exploded on his leg. He fainted there and was rushed to the hospital in a cab. The police also fired rubber bullets and pelted stones as well. Because of the tear gas people dispersed and riot police in their gas masks charged at us. The students were already in terrible condition due to the tear gas and the police showed no concern for the injured lying on the ground. They became easy targets and were beaten up indiscriminately.
Even with all this, a group of 50 students still made it to the CJ’s house. They were eventually surrounded by 600 odd policemen who treated them terribly even after they were already handing themselves over to the authorities. There were numerous arrests made and many different news papers are reporting different numbers. At the time of writing this report the female prisoners have been released and the males were charged under so many different offenses that it was difficult to keep track.
The two bullies responsible for today’s action are:
Nasir Aftab: 0300-8505563
Kamran Cheema: 9261163
The students urge you all to call these bullies and tell them about your sentiments. One student said she had no one to go to for justice. Had the CJ been there he would have taken a suo moto notice against these policemen but without him there was no one to go to for help. She said this while being unable to move after the beating she got from the police and waiting for help from somewhere.
Please forward this to everyone and let the world know that students of Pakistan will not be affected by these minor skirmishes. They may have broken bones and aching bodies but their spirit is alive and will fight till our heroes are restored.”