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.
@ Minai
You were right in your analysis the evil should be nipped in the bud. I would like to give credit to Musharraf regime and urge people to be fair and give credit when credit is due.
Respect to your great place, and let the devil
Be sometime honoured for his burning throne.
http://uk.360.yahoo.com/imranbhatt
@Aqil Sajjad
Couldn’t agree with you more that there are some very troubling signs on the economy front. So much for “period of high growth”. That might spell the doom for Musharraf as the 1997 financial crisis in Indonesia brought down the 32 years old Suharto government.
It is indeed very unfortunate but trouble makers, as long as they are commoners, need to be dealt with a strong hand.
My advice to the govt is to take preventive steps in advance to ensure that future trouble makers do not reach adulthood. Baton charging hordes should be let loose on small children and new born babies, and any potential subsersives should be mercilessly nipped in the bud.
na rahE ga bANs na bajE gi bANsri
Why should Musharraf be blamed for everything? There were ever only three saviors sent. The first was Moses and the second was Muhammad. Funny how all their names start with the letter M.
That mention of the Chinese leadership deciding that they need a very high growth rate to survive is interesting. But in this case, I think Mush probably genuinely believes that he has done wonders for the economy and the people should be happy with him. He is probably at a loss as to why people are agitating at all. Our problem is not just that we have dictatorship, but also that our leaders are low calibre material. With visionary leadership, even dictatorship could have taken us well forward.
The next coming weeks are going to be interesting since the economy is coming under a lot of pressure. Inflation is getting worse, and the hike in the international oil price is making things worse. I think the govt is trying to delay increasing the oil price untill the elections. However, there are going to be some losers in the elections and they might join the protests. Presently, the idea must be not to annoy Mush too much because then they could suffer in the elections. This might change after the elections, and as inflation increases further, the people are going to get angrier. So Mush is certainly not out of the woods yet.
Aqil Bhai,
Well said
Feimanallah
Wasim