For want of attention, concern and care, a policeman died in Islamabad, infuriating his colleagues in the Punjab Police, and urging them to come out on the roads in defiant, enraged and hate-charged protest.
Protest against whom?
The Federal Police?
On the face of it, one can say YES. Those who were targeted by the rage of the protesters certainly belonged to the Federal Police. And the apparent reason behind the clash of the policemen belonging to Punjab with those belonging to Islamabad was the inhuman apathy and the callous insensitivity (shown towards the deceased policeman) on the part of those who were supposed to carry on their shoulders, the responsibility of looking after the welfare and the well-being of their counterparts in the Punjab Police. But behind this apparent reason happens to be ‘smouldering’ a cauldron of hatred in the minds of those who have reasons to consider themselves as the wronged ones, against those who are seen as running a system that has its roots and origins in obscene injustice and morbid cruelty.
The pictures that I have seen of the protesting policemen, and of those coming under the barrage of the hate-packed blows of the enraged protesters, haven’t failed to tell me that even beneath the police uniform can be found that “mass of humanity” which has been on the receiving end for long, and been exposed to unbearable suffering.
The event hadn’t any precedence of its type, and is nothing if not an ominous indicator of the magnitude of catastrophic situations that lack of faith in a system’s capacity for justice, and in the credibility of those in command of the society’s destiny, can cause.
Let the highest in the land try to realize that all that fury of the protesters was aimed not at their helpless counterparts, but at the highest among the highest.
26-08-2014