It is a cause for serious concern that the Eid day and the day before and after it have, according to reports carried in different contemporaries, witnessed 20 chilling murders and five incidents of rape - in a few cases both rape and murder. The celebration of sacrifice of the dearest of all man claims to have in this earthly world has thus been slurred. When the noble spirit should have inspired people to humbly submit to the Almighty for His love and mercy, how could so many people be driven by baser instincts to commit such crimes! It is clear that deterrent, mostly in the form of religious piety and socio-cultural values, to murder and sex crimes is fast crumbling in the face of abuse of modern gadgets. Psychopaths are surely growing in number but still the overwhelming majority in society do not endorse violence and sexual aberrations. Then why are such incidents on the rise? One answer is society's aloofness - a tendency to save one's own skin forgetting that such a mentality of indifference does spare none when the danger comes.
Now the divisiveness in society on many counts, the chief among them being social discriminations based mostly on unearned money, only leaves an unguarded space for the predators to prowl on their victims. Common people are disorganised but political followers and criminal gangs are not only organised, at times they are very handy to serve each other's nefarious purposes. The law enforcers find themselves in a tricky position when political elements and their henchmen are involved in crimes. At least in one of the 20 murders, both murderers and the murdered allegedly belong to the same political party. Internecine feuds over share in booty and extension of sphere of influence are often responsible for such crimes.
Add to this the abduction of people for ransom, there emerges an atmosphere full of dark apprehensions, mistrust and nervousness. There are even allegations of forced disappearances. The fact is when someone picks up a person for extermination without getting the ultimate punishment for the crime, the act sends a chilling sense of premonitions down the spine of most people. In rare cases have such crimes been unearthed and the criminals detected. As long as the mystery behind remains unsolved, such incidents continue to trouble people's minds.
So far as sex crimes are concerned, those are bizarre in every respect. In the list of the rape victims during the three days, there are a girl child of two and a half years, another of seven years old and a 12 years old mentally challenged girl. Clearly, these are not just sex crimes but also perversions at their worst. The first two were allegedly raped and murdered. Punishment for sex crimes has to be severer. If acid terrorism could be contained by making the law severer and its execution, sexual violence against girls and women can as well be controlled. In some of the rape incidents local people caught the rapists and handed them over to the police. So the need is to have an alliance of society and legal arms in order to get rid of this curse.
