Boy, 10, killed in attempted blasphemy lynching in Pakistan

[muriel_volestrangler]

A 10-year-old boy has been killed and five other people wounded after a mob attacked a police station in an attempt to lynch a Hindu man charged with blasphemy in south-west Pakistan, officials said. It was the third major vigilante attack linked to accusations of insulting Islam in less than a month, as law enforcement agencies struggle to deal with a surge in violence.

Thursday’s incident occurred in the town of Hub in the restive province of Balochistan following the arrest of Prakash Kumar, a 34-year-old member of the country’s Hindu religious minority. Kumar, a crockery shop owner, was detained on Tuesday for allegedly posting an incendiary image on social media.

“When news of his arrest was published in local newspapers on Thursday, a crowd of some 500 people, including traders, clerics and politicians, surrounded the town’s police station to demand he be handed over,” police official Abdul Sattar told Agence France-Presse.

When police refused, the mob turned on them, beating up officers and local government officials before firing guns. The 10-year-old boy died and five others were wounded in the melee, he added.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/04/10-year-old-boy-killed-attempted-blasphemy-lynching-pakistan

Fuck the concept of 'blasphemy', and anyone who tries to get people to take it seriously, let alone murder because of their delusion.

[Jno_Gilmor_]

1. Sickening...we need a more moral foreign policy that agressively punishes such behavior.

Particularly foreign aid--not including food, medicine and other humanitarian aid. Realpolitik doesn't work.

[Igel]

2. Foreign aid doesn't always work.

Tying it to a foreign policy that says, "We're better than you and you need to take a cue from us, so change or we'll use aid and information to remake your society to suit us" typically leads to things being blocked.

At that point, there's often another country that could step in.

At that point, if there's sufficient offense taken and if it has the means to do so that country can do things that we don't like in countries where we are already working. (Added: Pakistan's a tough case: nuclear weapons led to all kinds of sanctions, and while under sanctions it helped the Taliban take over; one of our main "mujihadeen" groups in Afghanistan was the Northern Alliance, not AQ, and in 2001 it was the Northern Alliance that again were our "boots on the ground". Sanction Pakistan, and lose both countries ... again.)

Soft touch, not aggressive the making of others in our blessed image, often gets you further. And if it doesn't, it's not like we have some White Man's burden to make sure that everybody else lives lives as moral as our own--nobody's going to ask us to submit die for their transgressions.

Realpolitik and proselytization are radically different sorts of things. Ultimately it was Realpolitik that helped bring down the USSR and that broke China's isolation. Some things take time. Some things simply are not in the power of even such gods as we are to correct. Let's not be the nurturing mother who, when her teenager refuses to eat his peas, knocks him out and puts a feeding tube down his throat while saying what a sweet, loving mother she is and he should praise her tenderness and empathy.

[struggle4progress]

3. Growing lynch mobs

Growing lynch mobs
EDITORIAL
UPDATED 2 DAYS AGO

THE growing incidence of mob lynchings all over the country is grounds for concern. In the past fortnight alone, we have seen three horrific examples of angry mobs chasing individuals alleged to have committed blasphemy ... However, it is not only those accused of blasphemy who are hunted down and often killed. There have been many incidents in which individuals suspected of being involved in theft have faced the mob’s wrath ... This is a dangerous trend and if allowed to continue, could reach a point where no one would be able to control the angry crowds.

... socioeconomic frustrations, the lack of access to justice, the religiosity and intolerance set in motion during the Zia regime and, critically, poor enforcement of the law have a large role in the making of today’s fanatical crowds that are ready to take matters into their own hands. And it is unfortunate that very often this tendency is opportunistically fanned by sections of the media especially with regard to blasphemy accusations ...

... The mass media has a critical role to play here, in sending out the message that no matter how powerful the provocation, taking the law into your hands is not justifiable under any circumstances. There must be no exceptions ...

https://www.dawn.com/news/1331506

[Bradical79]

4. Disgusting :-(