Mindless attack

As the police are trying their best to prevent people from assembling in large numbers, particularly in Sindh, the recent attack on an SHO in Karachi is highly condemnable. SHO Sharafat Khan was attacked outside a mosque in Karachi’s Orangi Town where people had entered from a back door and offered Friday prayers in close proximity to each other. This was a clear violation of law. When the SHO came to know about this blatant violation of the law, she came to the mosque to persuade the people to offer prayers at home rather than jeopardizing their own lives with the spread of the coronavirus. A video circulating on social media clearly shows her nose bleeding and the people around her harassing and intimidating her.

SHO Sharafat, however, showed that she was not one to be cowed down by the hostile response from the people she was trying to protect. Women police officers are a novelty in our country and people in this country are not yet accustomed to listening to any sensible advice, especially if it is coming from an officer who happens to be a woman. The situation came under control finally and the police are said to have registered a case against the attackers as well as the violators of the ban, and an action will be taken against them so that such attempts at congregations are discouraged.

The SHO in question must be applauded for sticking to the law and displaying some commendable professionalism in the line of what is a difficult and dangerous duty these days: ensuring mosque-goers pray at home. But other than such rare instances, we have seen multiple congregations held across Pakistan including some in Islamabad, such as at Lal Masjid. In fact, Lal Masjid’s cleric Maulana Aziz has been openly flouting the congregation ban. While he has been ‘booked’, that seems as far as the authorities are going. The impunity of some clerics, the stubbornness of some people and the laxity of the federal and some provincial governments may lead us to a situation that becomes insurmountable in the near future. We need stringent measures in place all over the country and bring those people to book who are encouraging congregations even when such gatherings have been banned in the most sacred places of all religions including Islam.