A crowd of around 100 onlookers is watching cheerfully and can be heard shouting that 22-year-old Najiba has committed adultery and must die. As the young woman, huddled in a burka, tries to move, a man walks up and opens fire with his assault rifle. That’s Talibanised justice carried out in few hours of accusation, prosecution and execution. This cold-blooded murder took place last week in Parwar province in Afghanistan. Also, last week, another hysterical mob of hundreds of people attacked a police station on the outskirts of Bahawalpur in Pakistan, dragged a man out of the lock up. The man – accused of blasphemy – was beaten and then burned to death. Later, the police reported that the accused man was mentally unstable, as he kept laughing and chanting when was in the police’s custody. Two weeks back, Taliban released a video showing severed heads of 17 Pakistani soldiers displayed on a blood y white sheet. These soldiers were captured by Taliban in a cross-border raid from Afghanistan.
These and many other incidents are grim reminders of what the future holds for both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Taliban may never come to power in a democratic setup but they have succeeded in brainwashing a number of illiterate people, now being joined by some educated religious zealots as well. Whether they will ever rule the respective capital of these inauspicious countries, only time will tell but they are now ruling hearts and minds of a number of people. No one knows how this mess the West created in the 80s will ever be brought under control.
MASOOD KHAN
Saudi Arabia