NEW YORK: Eight days after two teenage brothers were lynched by mob at the prodding of police officials in Sialkot, the federal government's chief for internal security Mr. Rehman Malik showed up at the crime scene and did a No Action Talk Only (NATO)!
Meanwhile top political leaders including PM Gilani remain silent on it. Whether it is Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Gilani, Imran Khan, Ch. Shujaat, Pervez Elahi or Altaf Hussain – none have so far made any public condemnation of the heinous crime committed in which the state's law enforcing machinery was directly involved. The Sialkot DPO, SHO including 8 policemen are implicated in the murder of the two brothers.
In USA, most Pakistani-Americans are talking about the incident with disgust and sorrow. One expat Pakistani wrote: "As a result of all of these, its getting increasingly hard for many Pakistanis living abroad to admit they belonged to Pakistan."
The social media Facebook and Twitter is flooded with discussions on the gory incident.
Last Sunday, the unidentified people took turns savagely beating the two teenage brothers with sticks, drawing blood before dragging and hanging their dead bodies from a nearby metal pole.
None of the dozens of people watching tried to stop the attack, not even several police. The boys may have been mistaken for robbers.
The scene, caught on video and broadcast on news channels, has outraged and anguished Pakistanis, some of whom are asking if years of state neglect have brutalized society.
The killings occurred Aug. 15 in Sialkot. As details have emerged, authorities appear increasingly confident that the two boys — Moiz Butt, 17, and his brother Muneeb, 15 — were innocent. Moiz is said to be a hafiz-e-quran.
The two went to play cricket after praying and eating breakfast, carrying a bag with them containing game equipment, said Mujahid Sherdil, a top government official in the district.
An robbery had taken place in the vicinity of the cricket field, so residents were on alert and police were nearby.
Apparently, when the boys appeared with a bag, they were thought to be the robbers, Sherdil said.
He added, however, that more information was still being sought. The boys were believed to have been in fights over the past few days for the right to play on the cricket ground, which was about a mile (two kilometers) from their house.
The origins of the video are unknown and there are reports that multiple men in the crowd recorded the attack using cell phones.
Stations blurred out some of the more graphic images of the boys' bloodied bodies, but several faces in the crowd are clearly identifiable, including several police officers in uniform who watched.
Civic groups condemned the attack in Sialkot, and the media attention has forced the government to respond.
But many suspects never get caught — one reason mobs feel free to go after victims on their own.
Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik visited the family of the two victims Sunday in Sialkot and issued an appeal for citizens to come forward with evidence to help the investigation.
He said at least 10 suspects have been arrested including four police officers.
Malik said the police should have at least fired their guns in the air to disperse the crowd, and added that people should not take the law into their own hands.
"It is not the kind of incident any civilized society can afford," he said. "The whole of Pakistan wants the people involved to be punished. And we are getting demands from the nation that they should be hanged at the very place where they murdered the two brothers."
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