Kot Radha Kishan it was this time. The details were different. The lynching led to a whole new consequence. A Christian couple accused of blasphemy was almost beaten to death before they were thrown into the kiln where they worked and burnt to ashes.
One thing was common though: the use of loudspeakers in the mosques to gather and instigate mobs; like in Gujranwala in 1995, like in Gojra, like in Jospeh Colony. The list is endless it seems, the details vary but a loudspeaker at the mosque it is each time.
Loudspeakers are officially banned, or at least for this kind of usage. It is only allowed for the calls for prayer, the prayer, the khutba or sermon for Friday and Eid prayers. Other than these, loudspeakers cannot be used as per law. And yet the law is observed more in its violation than otherwise.
Apart from a few good uses of these loudspeakers, like announcements of deaths in the mohallah or disappearance of children or vaccination teams (on which the law is silent), loudspeakers are a nuisance. In the worst case, they are used to spread hate speech and fan sectarian or ethnic differences.
In a historical overview of how loudspeakers were adopted to be used in the mosque, Dr Tahir Kamran tells us that they have played "a vital role in allowing the clergy to wield influence across political, social, and cultural realms".
This is significant. Yet it could be argued that any kind of ban on people’s right to freely express their views is not a welcome step. This is a sensitive territory -- distinguishing between freedom of speech and hate speech.
The state has apparently pre-empted hate speech by instituting a partial ban on loudspeakers that could spread it. But it falls just short of implementing what it has principally agreed on in the form of a law.
The Special Report today is an attempt to draw attention to the loudspeakers in our midst, what harm are they capable of doing and what are the problems in implementation of laws that regulate them.