[Reader-list] Mob justice: Religion?

[TaraPrakash]

    A killing that has sparked debate on blasphemy laws in Pakistan

Nirupama Subramanian

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Over 4,000 blasphemy cases have been registered since the law came into 
existence.

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Blasphemy is an offence punishable by death in Pakistan, but Jagdeesh 
Kumar's co-workers did not allow him the luxury of a court hearing even 
under this
infamous law. Instead, the 20-year-old Hindu youth was simply lynched by his 
co-workers in the factory where he was employed for allegedly making 
blasphemous
remarks against Prophet Muhammad.

The April 8 incident has once again spurred debate in Pakistan on the levels 
of religious intolerance in the country and on sections 295-B and 295-C of
the Pakistan Penal Code, together known as the blasphemy laws.

A Human Rights Commission of Pakistan fact-finding team that visited the 
leather factory in Karachi's Korangi Industrial Area the day after the 
macabre
incident has recorded that Jagdeesh was lynched in the presence of several 
policemen who did nothing to prevent the incident.

According to Abdul Hai of the Sindh chapter of the HRCP who was in the 
fact-finding team, the altercation between Jagdish Kumar and his co-workers 
began
at 10 a.m. , and was first settled by a factory supervisor within a few 
minutes. The HRCP says a personal dispute was the reason for the fight.

An hour or so later, the workers attacked him again, alleging that he had 
made blasphemous comments. At this point, the factory's security guards 
rescued
Jagdeesh, taking him to the guard room, where he remained under their 
protection. Meanwhile, the factory called the police. But despite the 
presence of
a number of policemen in the premises, and outside, a massive mob of workers 
collected at the guardroom, and eventually broke down its doors and lynched
Jagdeesh Kumar.

"My boy went to Karachi so he could bring in some rupees to feed the 
family," said his father Prabhu Lal, a 65-year-old former beedi roller in 
Mirpur Khas,
a district in the Thar desert with a sizeable Hindu population near 
Pakistan's border with Rajasthan. "But we got his body instead. This is the 
biggest
injustice that could have been done to my son and to me and my family."

The Karachi police have since arrested three workers from the factory where 
Jagdish was done to death. But the victim's family believes that in order to
be let off or treated with lenience, the killers are using the blasphemy 
accusation to justify a murder committed for other reasons.

"We don't know enough about our own religion to talk about, how can we dare 
to talk about another religion? It is impossible that Jagdeesh would have 
said
anything against Islam," said Ashok Kumar, a neighbour of the family.

The family fear that unless the police expose the "real" motive behind his 
killing, the blasphemy charge against Jagdish could "stain" and endanger the
lives of the entire family.

Some see a direct link between Jagdeesh's killing and Pakistan's blasphemy 
laws that were added on to the Pakistan Penal Code section relating to 
"offences
against religion" between 1982 and 1986. Sub section 295-B of 1982 
prescribes life imprisonment for defiling or desecrating the Koran. Sub 
section 295-C
of 1986 lays down that "whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by 
visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, 
directly
or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy prophet Muhammad (PBUH) 
shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be 
liable
to fine".

Vague complexity of the law

According to one analyst writing in Dawn, "the explanation for [Jagdeesh's] 
co-workers' criminal conduct is to be found in the vague complexity of the 
law
which leaves every individual free to view the 'imputation, innuendo or 
insinuation, directly or indirectly' in the light of his own conviction or 
as indoctrinated
by the mullah."

More than 4,000 blasphemy cases have been registered since the law came into 
existence. Convictions are rare, and no one has yet been hanged for it, but
in dozens of instances, the accused have been killed by mobs.

In 2005, a mob in the town of Spin Kakh gave chase to Ashiq Nabi for alleged 
blasphemy and shot him dead as he tried to escape by climbing up a tree. His
wife had reportedly held up a Koran for protection during a fight with Nabi, 
and when he pushed her, the book fell on the floor. A local maulvi filed 
charges
of blasphemy against Nabi, but instead of waiting for the police to arrest 
him, incited townspeople over the loudspeaker of the local mosque to go 
after
him.

Very often, the law is used to target members of the minority community, and 
several time, has also been used by Muslims against each other to settle 
personal
scores. The 2008 annual report of the non-government Human Rights Commission 
of Pakistan details several cases in which people have been charged with the
offence on the basis of flimsy evidence.

In most cases, the accused languish in prison until their cases are decided, 
but even behind bars, they live in fear of violence against them by other 
inmates.
The fears of being set upon only increase after acquittal and release. The 
Dawn article cited an instance in which four brothers were found by a court
to have been falsely accused of blasphemy by a village rival. By the time 
the case was decided, they had spent six years in jail. Fearing retaliation 
after
their release, the four soon fled Pakistan.

In its 2008 annual report, the HRCP comments that a growing number of 
Muslims in Pakistan had begun to feel that the only true version of Islam is 
the one
they practise, and as the State had failed in its duty to protect the 
interests of the religion "that it is their religious duty to enforce it on 
all and
sundry by deploying all possible means, including the use of force against 
those who do not fall in line".

The report said this was also one reason for the unchecked growth of 
extremism and militancy in Pakistan.

Human rights activists believe that the failure of the government to take 
exemplary action against vigilantism in the name of religion encourages 
people
to take the law into their hands, or misuse it with impunity.

Unable to counter

"The kind of extremism that has been displayed in [the Jagdeesh Kumar] case, 
there are likely to be many more such sad incidents because governments are
unable to counter it firmly," said HRCP director I.A. Rehman.

Mr. Rehman said it would take Pakistan "a long time" to rectify the 
situation because no government was prepared to antagonise conservative 
elements in
the country.

In 2000, President Pervez Musharraf tried to make changes to the 
implementation of the blasphemy law so that the complaint could be made only 
to a senior
police officer, but he had to back down in the face of opposition from 
religious hardliners.

Mr. Rehman said the HRCP did not include the repeal of the blasphemy laws in 
the 16-point programme that it forwarded to the new government as "Pakistan
is not yet ready for this". But the rights group has demanded the abolition 
of the death penalty, which will indirectly bring changes to the blasphemy
law.

Moderate and progressive voices in the electronic and print media are urging 
Pakistan's new government to come down heavily on those who were responsible
for Jagdeesh's killing in order to send out an unequivocal message that 
religious vigilantism will not be tolerated.

A few days after Jagdeesh's killing, the Sindh chief minister sent a Hindu 
member of the Provincial Assembly to Mirpur Khas to meet the family and 
assure
them that justice would be done. But the family is too scared to follow up 
on that assurance and ensure that Jagdeesh's killers were brought to book.

"Some people have been saying to me that I should go to Karachi and demand 
justice. But I'm frightened of the consequences," Prabhu Lal said. The only 
course
of action open to him, the bereaved father said, was to keep his head down 
and hope for the best.