Monday, December 29

The Inevitable Aftermath

Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian was gunned down by police men in the aftermath of the July 7 bombings. Jean had tried to run from the police and was unarmed.

Mohammed Mukarram Pasha, a 19-year-old first year B.Com student of Bangalore's Baldwin Methodist's College was fatally shot by the Army guards in the aftermath of the Mumbai mayhem. Mukarram had tried to flee from the army camp and was unarmed.

There are a lot of similarities between the two incidents. Armed authorities had taken extreme measures, something they would have normally avoided otherwise. Both incidents have taken place in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. It is a time when authorities prefer to put a bullet, instead of apprehending a suspect.

Mukarram had entered the Flag Staff House by jumping the compound wall, fleeing from the police. He was only guilty of drag racing and trespassing, as claimed by the police. However, when he ignored the army guards’ warnings and tried to flee from the army camp, he was fatally shot at and was declared dead on arrival by the doctors at the St Philomena's Hospital.

People close to Mukarram are seething with anger, accusing the army guards of being trigger happy. They argue that with six guards, they could have easily apprehended Mukarram instead of shooting at him.

Ironically, this incident has taken place hours after the Home Guards in Bangalore organized a rally to mark 'National Disaster Reduction Day' on Sunday, asking citizens to play a role in securing the city.

Do you think that the army guards were well within their rights to shoot or could they have shown some restraint? Should the guard who shot Mukarram be court marshalled?


2 comments:

  1. They could have shown some restraint. In fear Mukarram might have not understood what was right to do obviously he might have been frightened of the cops and even the cops should have not shot at him as he was unarmed, I think they could have easily known that one as he was bare-handed and in fear he was trying to hide from them and escape outside. They should have at least shot him on his leg so that he could have saved.Also, if a person intends to break the law, he should also be strong enough to handle the consequences of such actions and not run like a child.

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  2. Well your last few lines did drive home the point hard enough. I believe Mukarram was well aware that pulling off such stunts on a bike was against the law. But, then again news reports have been trickling down in the media for the past few days, chronicling his life. It seems he had a strong ambition to join the police force. Probably, that might be the reason he was running away from the cops. A police record would have certainly destroyed his hopes of becoming a policeman.

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