The two cases of death due to torture over the last few weeks—first of 17-year old Rehan in Karachi and now of Salahuddin Ayubi in Rahim Yar Khan—demonstrate what a blood thirsty society we have become. Whether it is state or non-state actors, the first instinct is to kill. In both cases, part of the public outrage (at least amongst a small section) is over the fact that the killings were ‘unjust’, not because killing a criminal is unjust in and of itself, but because Rehan was a minor and his crime was unproven and because Salahuddin was mentally ill.
Does this mean their killings would be fine otherwise? Until we radically reconceptualise our understandings of crime, punishment and justice, such deaths will continue in and out of custody. Rehan and Salahuddin are not exceptional. Their killings are part of the norm in a society that is organised around the use of fear and violence as a mode of social control, and one in which notions of compassion and empathy are becoming almost nonexistent.
NAVEED ABBAS
Islamabad
