silence no more

On August 15th 2010, the nation witnessed a heart wrenching video of two brothers being brutally murdered, everyone was shocked and angry, a reaction was seen and protests took place in various parts of the country. A mere two and a half months after the incidence there is, silence! Most of us have again reacted, vented out and than gone back to our daily lives, we have stopped wanting to know how much justice has been served, what happened to those who were arrested, how the family is coping and how the case is progressing. There were swift arrests, remands and bails the case being taken up by the supreme court, but now a long wait. There have been various accounts of the story told, however there has been a lack of fervor in the general public. We fail to understand that if we do not continually persist with action, fight for the justice required and care about the result, this case of inhumanity will come and go, a permanent black spot on the morality of our society, but six months from now, god forbid, someone else might again take the law into their own hands, domestically or publicly, and this cycle of violence might never break, we might never feel safe and this will be our fault, every 17 crore of us.

However, a group of us has waken up and are now a beacon for hope for the family of those two children, Justice for Mughees and Muneeb, a face book group has done their duty and much more, from arranging the protests, identifying the criminals, to forming a journal, and writing to amnesty international. The administrators have brilliantly used face book’s platform to update their members on how the case is progressing and also constantly posting the feelings of all those that have been jolted by the events of August 15, having translators aboard for anyone who in unable to communicate in English. I was amazed at the resolve of these administrators therefore I mailed to ask them what kept them going, why didn’t they go back to their daily lives like all of us. Following is the transcript of our conversation.

Q: What strikes me most is the fact that even when the society has unfortunately steamed out against the incident and even the activity on your wall has decreased, the spirit and vigor of your admins does not diminish, where does the strength come from?

A: The strength comes from conviction and team work, we have a very strong team who are bound together with the fact that thy want change and justice. This very fact covers them and they all have different tasks and all of them are professionals and organized people so they know how to pull up when others are down. Also the important thing is that we support each other at down times and share the success accordingly.

Q: What is the group currently doing to help the cause and the family?

A: We are doing quite a lot of things most of them on the page and a lot of them off the page. The amnesty appeal was a quick step but our core focus is the Journal as this will draw our efforts to a next and historic level. We have ambitious plans for that.

Q: How has the response been to your pleas for people to write to Amnesty international on the issue? And what was the purpose behind these letters to amnesty?

A: The amnesty response was slow in the beginning but it picked up but not as much as we thought it would be. Our aim is to highlight the issue to save tomorrow’s Mughees and Muneeb. The case in the court is one part of the process however, as the family and specially the boys grand father said, the bigger cause is to save the future.

Q: You have constantly been in touch with the family how are they coping almost two and a half months after the incident, what are there thoughts on the situation?

A: They have a great heart and they are coping very well with it, but the down times and political mud sliding saddens them a bit, but they get stronger by every passing day to change the things for better.

Q: How do you, the admins and the family take news like ‘the bail of DPO Waqar chauhan’ and ‘Dr Firdous Aashiq awaan supporting a rally in favour of the criminals of the lynching’. what is your take on it?

A: Allah is the only Munsif and the greater one, so these small incidents of few ill advised people who presume they are strong enough to stand against Allah does not bother us at all. By us I mean the family and ourselves.

Q: In the end I would just like to commend you on behalf of all the sane Pakistanis for fighting this fight to uphold the morality of this nation and would like to ask if you have any message for the people reading this, what can fellow Pakistanis do in this situation for justice to be delivered?

A: The Pakistanis need to start acting, they should not stand and watch but make efforts to stop if they see anything happening. The fact that everyone is innocent until proven guilty they should let the system take its course rather than act like God and deliver mob justice. People should try to calm things up rather than stand there and watch, if we can make this one thing happen we would believe we have brought a revolution.

Thank you for your appreciation and we are nothing without those many restless souls who are with us throughout this process and we salute them.

 

(written on 31st october)

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