The dacoit culture and kidnapping for ransom isn’t a novel idea or something that the people of Sindh and Punjab are unaware of, but, the recent surge in the number and degree of kidnapping for ransom by the dacoits of Kacha area is unprecedented. The history of dacoit culture in Sindh is a few decades old and one might have heard many stories related to famous dacoits which sometimes glorified some of them as heroes and saviors of the poor.
The glorification of the criminal segments of the society might seem strange to some but the logic was simple and understandable because they acted as a character resembling the legendary Robin Hood depicted in English folklore.
The people generally used to believe that the dacoits were innocent people who turned rebellious against the law at the hands of none other than the police, however, the recent episodes in the surge of kidnappings and the ruthless behavior of the dacoits towards the general public has tarnished the soft image of dacoits as the sufferers of police terror and unjust system.
In fact now the people have started demanding action against the dacoits because of their indiscriminate abduction practices and their disgusting way of propagating their power by recording videos of abducted people. The criticism became much fierce when the dacoits recorded and forced the rape scene of two of those abducted for ransom.
The anger and uproar of the public became so demanding that their resentment against the increasing number of kidnappings was even heard in the parliament. Some of the civilized minds like Shaharyar Khan Mahar from Shikarpur and MNA Sardar Riaz Mehmood Khan Mazari also pressed hard against the dacoit culture and demanded a military operation but all in vain.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that the issue had been high lightened and brought into the notice of authorities through electronic and social media, yet the silence at the part of authorities encouraged the dacoits a great deal to act openly and in an act of brazen disregard of the law of the land, they started recording their activities and propagating their sinister acts on Facebook.
To the utter surprise of many, there has been no serious consideration of any decisive action against the increasing influence of the dacoits who now started exerting leverage over the police by showcasing the weapons which are generally owned by a military force only. This may raise serious questions as to how such sophisticated weapons reach remote areas of Kutcha; the riverine belt of Punjab and Sindh despite a huge network of intelligence agencies and police force.
Unfortunately district Kashmore has proven more sensitive and the dacoits here seem to be more notorious compared to the other districts. There have been more than forty cases of abduction within the last few months in district Kashmore alone. Indeed what is really alarming is the fact that the kidnappings happened in a consistent manner and some were even within the vicinities of Kashmore city. The Hindu Panchayat announced a sit in protest to block Indus Highway at Dera Mor and also called for a complete shutter down in the city against the absolute silence and inability of police to recover the abducted.
This call for protest was not only welcomed by Muslim fellows of Kashmore alone but rather became viral throughout Sindh leading to protests in Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities of the province. This protest resulted in the recovery of three of the abducted namely Dr. Munir Naich, Mukhi Jagdeesh Kumar and Jaideep Kumar. The protest at Kashmore was called off by Hindu Panchayat after the assurance of authorities to recover the other abductees soon. It is widely rumored that the protest was actually called off at the behest of the local Sirdars.
Many people disapproved of Hindu Panchayat’s decision to call off the protest without recovery of other abductees and therefore once again staged a sit-in on Indus highway near Kandhkot Town. The police held talks with the protestors to call off the protest but the people did not give in, therefore, the police used violent force and injured many protestors which invited wide scale anger resulting in protests in different cities of Sindh once again. The protestors raised slogans against SSP Amjad Shaikh and the local Sirdars and demanded swift recovery of the abducted people.
Surprisingly, the lack of a serious response of the state towards this increasing kidnapping industry is astounding and also raises a lot of questions against the credibility of the state institutions to deal with the crisis. It is also a matter of immense surprise that the police only conducts operations to recover the abducted once there is a protest and what is more surprising is that it all happens without any casualties or injury.
It seems as if the political apparatus and law enforcing agencies are unwilling to bring an end to this kidnapping culture. Indeed the writ of the state itself is challenged and, therefore, demand by the protestors of Kashmore for a military operation in the Kutcha area should be considered the only option to get rid of this menace.