KARACHI: The government of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday directed the inspector-general of police (IGP) to devise a “mechanism” to deal with vigilante justice, days after the lynching of two employees of a cellular company in the port city of Karachi.
Police last week arrested several suspects in Karachi’s Machhar Colony, an unplanned but populous settlement, after residents beat engineer, Aiman Javed, and his driver, Muhammad Ishaq, to death, following rumors they were in the area to kidnap children.
The tragic deaths drew widespread outrage on social media. On Monday, the Sindh government summoned the provincial police chief, Ghulam Nabi Memon, for a briefing on the incident.
“Cabinet has offered Fateha [prayers] for the departed souls and directed IGP Sindh to ensure that the culprits are dealt with sternly as per law and also devise [a] mechanism to address mob justice,” Murtaza Wahab, a spokesperson for the provincial government, said on Twitter.
The cabinet also announced Rs5 million ($22,550) in support for each of the bereaved families, he added.
The victims were visiting Machar Colony to examine the frequency of a mobile service provider’s tower when they were lynched, a spokesperson for the Sindh chief minister said in a statement, citing the police chief.
“There was a medical kit in the vehicle [and] inside the medical kit, there was pyodine powder, which people thought was being used to make children unconscious,” IGP Memon was quoted as saying in the statement.
Pyodine powder is used by medics to treat or prevent skin infection in case of minor cuts, scrapes or burns.
The suspects involved in the lynching had been identified and arrested, the police chief said.
Parvez Ali Solangi, a senior police officer overseeing Machhar Colony, said 46 suspects had been rounded up.
“All suspects have been arrested and are being interrogated,” he told Arab News.
It was not a premeditated murder but rumors led to the loss of two precious lives, Solangi added.
