Finally I caught a thief… (Part 2)
Yesterday, because of my readers request and order, I went to Edhi Homes to see how the kid is.
The receptionist told me that a kid of age 15 name Muhammad Mudassir was brought here by a man named Akhter Abbas Shah from Margallah Police station F-8. I asked him to let me meet that boy. And he said that he has been taken back home by his uncle named Muhammad Khalid. The boy belonged to Mardan, Peshawar.
I was amazed, because the police officer confirmed me that he will be taken to the session judge. I asked the receptionist that what Mr. Akhter told you about the boy, he showed me an application written by Mr. Akhter in which he wrote that the boy was found from M.B.A Chok, I do not know where it is in Islamabad, at 2 am on Sunday.
Whereas, he was arrested from my home, red handed. There and then I called the police station and talked to the officer. I asked him what it is and he hung up saying he will call later as he is busy. Later when I get back home he called and said in a very polite and frank manner as if he knows me from somewhere but I knew that “CHOR KE DARRI MAI TINKA HAI” I asked him why he lied to me and on what charges he let that boy go? And he was unable to convince me by saying madam we worked on him all night long and we could not find any think so…. And you know his mother is in hospital.
So what… is it my problem that his mother is sick and you were unable to perform your duty?
I was so disappointed that I hung up the phone. Later that night I was thinking that how that boy will brag about his heroic escape from me and from the police station and will tell his fellows that it is not a big deal to steal things as the police is very polite and duffer. This will encourage the other boys to steal and run away.
Police did not perform its duty properly and now I am glad that I slapped that boy as I have a little hope that he might not do such sin again when he remember those slaps.
great work on the kid author!!
Can you please list down here all those values you learnt at school, home or other places after receiving one or more ‘thappars’?
I am planning on going back to police station talk to the officer about the mishandling of the case and if they were unable to convince me I would file a case against the mishandling of Margallah police station F-8.
Should I do that? I do not want to let law and justice fall in to the hands of such ignorant officers or should I say protectors. Sighs!!!
They could have had shown sympathy to that thief in some other way but they did way too much which is unacceptable, at least for me.
Aijaz!!1 i really did not get you….sorry man but you are way too much sympathetic to for boy… you said that i should have not slapped him and let the police do their work but now you can see what the police did.
you have a different point of view for handling a kid..hope you will become a great father to your kids but every one has a different perception about handling things…it does not mean that they are wrong just because they are not doing it according to what you think.
forget the kid, remove some text from your previous post especially which promotes taking law in hand and sit quiet for sometime.
suggestion of forgetting is only because you cant do anything with the police which covers those gangs. and these gangs use children to achieve their goals.
Aijaz just seems to be a bitter, bitter man for whom nothing Ghalia does or will do is enough.
To borrow a phrase from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, perhaps the only thing
that will bring Aijaz’s anger from a boil
down to a simmer is if she repays the
criminal “with a pound of flesh”.
After having read in this post that the criminal
was fifteen year old, I feel even more confident in saying that what Ghalia did was right. I’m sorry but in my opinion, fifteen is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. The way Aijaz has been trying to portray it, one would have thought that the criminal was a child of perhaps 6-10 years old.
One just gets fed up with the holier-than-thou, preacher man type comments by the likes of Adnan Siddiqui and Aijaz.
Perhaps Aijaz can take a trip up to Mardan, locate this criminal, envelope him in a touchy
feely type hug, tell him to break all the laws
he wants, that the world loves him no matter what and practices what he is preaching in his comments and on his blog.
Or better yet, maybe all this can be done without the bother of taking the trip upcountry when, one day soon, in the middle of the night, this so called child-boy, alongwith his fellow thugs, breaks into Aijaz’s home or car and Aijaz is
waiting there for them with open, welcoming arms.
….With some locally made chocolates by Mitchells and not a tin of Quality Street (read
Aijaz’s personal blog regarding his thoughts
on imported chocolates).
Taking law in one’s hands..hmm ..sounds familiar..isnt that something which Lal masjid brigade was doing?? taking on aunty shamim themselves instead of asking police to do it..i think Ghalia..they knew that police will let go aunty shamim just like ur little thief…
very much appreciated.
You should also link Part-1 because new visitor of your blog would just get confused and wouldn’t have idea what actually was being disussed.
on a lighter note, MBA chowk sounds funny. Does it mean all residents of the area are MBA graduate?
Well! The point to be noted is that the individual (writer) did took action, she did take some logical measures to ensure justice.
She was under no legal or tangible pressure to do so. She did it (the Part-2 of the story) only due to moral and ethical values and hence proved the “Pakistaniat”. She is truly Pak. I hope she will succeed further…
It is also a good case to study and a lesson for all of us.
Ghalia – You need to report the negligencce of police officer handling the case to his superiors (SSP – Crimes Branch), preferably in writing, for the sake of accountability of police and inculcate some sense of responsibility among them.
I really appreciate you pursuing the issue further and your visit to the Edhi Home to enquire about the suspect.
i thing ghalia shud leave every thing as it is. Coz our police is very very lazy and rishwat khoor.
They must have let the boy go, as the boy might be giving them a big share from his robery.
As an aside, would someone care to kindly
inquire of Mr. Aijaz as to why he has
conveniently removed the post regarding
Ghalia from his personal blog (He had
posted this on Aug. 13).
“And he was unable to convince me by saying madam we worked on him all night long and we could not find any think so….”
I am afraid how they worked on him all the night. They say such boys in the hands of our Pak Police are likely to be sexually abused by them.
Ghalia, yes, please go and file the complaint against the police officer who lied to you and didn’t follow the course of law.
I kinda guessed he was 15-ish from ur first post. At least you let him know (if he really did think it was a way of life) that stealing was wrong. You did whatever you could to help that kid and Faisal’s right…….Aijaz would never be happy with anything you would do to try to fix the situation. You did your best and whatever you thought was right. And I agree with you, so just feel happy that you tried doing something right for the good of islamabad.
@FARAH
as long as the text below is present on an Islamabad Metro Blog post, I dont think anything can be described as for the good of Islamabad or any Islamabadi.
.. I slapped him as hard as I could with all the strength I had in me and after two three slaps I searched his garbage back and find my bag ..
.. While driving I felt a great pain in my right hand and realized it’s the result of beating that kid.
Member of an unjust society but thankfully not an Islambadi :)
jaz
I am not a big fan of Islamabad metblogs because I find the content to be very amateurish to say the least but a friend of mine asked me to read the story of the thief and after reading it I am just sitting here shaking my head in disbelief, not only at the content of the post but also at the supporters of such action.
You hit him as hard as you could without even checking his bag first. Who gave you the authority to do so? Just because your purse was in his bag does not in any way justify your actions before that discovery and in a civil society, not even afterwards.
If your idea of a civil society is the one where a victim of a petty crime can physically assault the culprit on mere doubt and not on concrete evidence then how can you speak against police brutality that is unfortunately a cancer of our society when they are merely doing the same thing to the accused without any evidence?
If you are still convinced that you did the right thing and for all those who also believe so, can you imagine yourself causing a fender bender the the person whose car you damaged comes out and slaps you as hard as he could? I hope his hand doesn’t hurt afterwards like yours did.
I forgot to add, would you have done the same thing if the accused was a grown man and you were alone there without any help of bystanders?
Would you have done that if the kid belonged to a respected and influential family and stole your purse as a joke?
Shame on you and thank you for reminding me why I hate the content on this site :-)
Ghalia, I hope the kid comes forward and sues you for assault. If the kid is a minor, he should not be treated as a criminal. You however, are presumably an adult. You are lucky, you didn’t hurt the kid. A hard slap is enough to damage hearing and eyesight. People are known to die from one hit to the head. You have your bag back, what else do you want?
For all you gung ho vigilantees supporting this, consider a scenario with the genders reversed. A young girl steals something from you, you catch her and then start slapping her in the middle of the street. Is that right? She is in the wrong as usual. She just doesn’t get it and keeps posting this stuff here.
Ghalia i wonder u put so much effort every time in making up stories…but every time it is a use less post .sorry but u need to grow up girl!
Nosheen: i would definitely try to write better…any suggestions? and about making stories…..i am not an imaginative writer, i live in a real world and write real stories..if you have problem just do not read my writings:)
thanks!!
Iunkonwn: the same thing i came to hear from my friends is not to pursue the case…just because police is not an easy department to handle I should back off? And that’s the reason why people do not pursue their cases because they are afraid of being molested by the police. I might face the same situation but let’s try it see what happens.
and in general: I said I am sorry for slapping him, and please do not exaggerate my action as now I myself wondering how hard I could have had slapped him that I am being accused of! Now I cannot do anything about it. In those circumstances what I thought of, I did that. Now cannot bring the time back, otherwise I would have.
hmm ….. i think it is all about Inequality….phir woh koi bhi rules hoon
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/july-2007/24/localnews1.php
Ghalia, I think that perhaps it’s now time to stop trying so hard to please and placate all
these people. Stop being so apologetic.
For crying out loud, the person was fifteen frikkin’ years old … nearly a grown man.
One of the comments above mentions damage
to hearing and eyesight … for God’s sake,
they make it sound like you beat up on an
infant or toddler.
And I fail to see the reasoning behind
the mention of gender reversal. What is
that implying; that being a female gives
one license to steal or do whatever one
wants with impunity?
“if the kid belonged to a respected and influential family and stole your purse as a joke?” Harris Siddiqui
Finally, Mr. Siddiqui has simply trivialised
stealing, robbing and burglary as a joke,
a childish prank. The gaul!!
Siraf 1 thapper mara .. y …… u should have slapped him twice ..
Dear Friends,
Some one forwarded me this story which apparently is a common occurrence in many societies. Its not the story that made me write a comment about it but your comments in general forced me type these few lines.
I saw great merit in Miss Aymen’s character for not only practicing your Commandment by your Holy Prophet ” Do not oppress and do not be oppressed” and did not sit still while being wronged and robbed, but her honesty and compassion for the thief was the real true virtue that impressed me.
Most un-meditated actions are liable to some fault at the part of the culprit thus you have manslaughter rather then murder when done in a moment of hast and circumstance and not premeditated in legal courts.
But rather then justifying her slap at time of adrenal rush, she saw that even though some one wronged her, she did not had the right to wrong them, and felt badly about slapping the youth (one is not a kid or a child at 15 by the way). She did not stop at that either but wanted to make sure the youth was alright, feeling she owed him due to an unwarranted slap and made extra human effort to make it right. This by the way, most of those slandering her in return would have not bothered to even think about.
What ever the out come of your endeavor Miss Aymen in this case might be, I salute you for an upright character. If young people at large can think and act like this, I believe your country will have a great future.
I am not an Islamabad resident neither your country mate, but your sense of Justice has touched my heart and of my friends here in USA whom I showed your story to.
Keep the good work up regardless of the slanderer.
PS: For those who objected, reporting and perusing a case to all levels of legal authorities does not constitute to “Taking Law in ones hand” but is necessary to obtain justice through proper channels. The fundamental reason all these levels were created in any Govt.
Interesting excersise, what if…
1) What if the kid stole from you and ran off?
2) What if you were the 15 year old kid?
3) What if you were the kids parents?
From those perspectives, what would you think of the actions of the two parties?
Wow……why are people taking this so much out of hand? He got free didn’t he? Shouldn’t that satisfy Aijaz? I’m really not trying to be sarcastic or anything…..but see, he eventually did get freed and not punished for stealing. Maybe he realized that there was some ounce of wrong in stealing all-over, which means Ghalia did her part. And she even went there afterwards to see if he was okay, come on guys……she’s trying, give her a break. She didn’t beat the kid up, she slapped him twice. Fine, to some it was wrong but are you forgetting that stealings wrong? And to this Haris guy, I’m so sure that if some rich kid stole the same exact thing, she’d do the exact same thing to him. It’s not a matter of hitting him jus coz he’s poor. He did get freed though……and he wouldn’t press charges or anything against Ghalia because (PLEASE REMEMBER THIS) HE STOLE HER PURSE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Seriously, some person wrote in some post that ppl are making the victim the culprit.
To this Farah Girl,
Can’t you see that she slapped him BEFORE her purse was produced from the kid’s bag? And all of you hell bent to make an act of foolishness sound like heroism answer my question, would it be right for a guy to slap Ghalia a couple of times if she caused a fender bender on the street while talking on her cell phone? How many of you will support that act?
@ Original Faisal
“Almost” fifteen years old is still a minor in the eyes of the law. It is not I who is trivializing the situation or the crime but you who is supporting the vigilantism. I would like to see her “principles” in the situation where a grown man is a culprit and there are no bystanders present for moral or physical support.
@ Gazelle
Your friends in the U.S consider it heart warming? I hope no one of them commits this stupidity in the states. In most jurisdictions in the states the culprit would have been arrested and released the same day simply because of his age and the fact that he committed a petty crime and would have probably gotten probation. Ghalia on the other hand would have been facing more serious changes of assault.
You guys are the biggest bunch of hypocrites I have seen. Condoning the actions saying “she slapped him so he could learn the consequences of his mistakes since the police is not doing their duty” Isn’t it what the Lal Masjid brigade was saying after kidnapping the accused Madam of an alleged brothel more or less using the same words? Is your sense of civility only limited to your posts where justice only serves as a punch line?
You guys should read the post again where she says that she went to see the kid after the requests and orders of her readers, not by her own feeling of guilt.
Wake up people, the society you guys are defending is hypocrite where a poor kid gets slapped two three times as hard as the person can for stealing few rupees but the thieves who steal billions from you get elected in the disguise of democracy. Sickening to say the least.
You should have contact some senior inspector or higher up about the boy and the police person who let him get away. Got eh extra step and do it. You will be doing your duty as a responsible citizen.
You should have contact some senior inspector or higher up about the boy and the police person who let him get away. Got the extra step and do it. You will be doing your duty as a responsible citizen.
most of her readers requirements are straight and simple which God knows what reasons cant be understood by mr. original, ms farah and ms states to count some.
STEALING IS CRIME but the authority to give punishment is police or govt. its not me. its not ghalia ..SIMPLE?
SLAPPING SOMEONE AND SPECIALLY A MINOR IS A CRIME and since the child was not able to take her to police she should at least feel ashamed. Whenever she looked like she is understanding the matter, somehow, due to some reason she again converts back and proves how dumb she could be.
A 15 YEAR OLD IS A MINOR, FULLSTOP
and we dont know if US govt allows slapping a 15 year old or not, and we dont care.
Some of the comments are so amateurish. So slapping is the punishment commensurate with the crime of stealing? Next thing would be that the people who caught the thief will be accused of causing mental harm to the thief. This is Pakistan, not USA. There is no law proscribing slapping of a thief. Even in USA, I have seen a women beating the heck out of some punk who was trying to snatch her purse. She was heralded by all and no one accused her of taking law into her own hand.
If the writer of the blog had cut the hands of the thief then she could have been accused of taking law into her own hand. But one slap only? I wish she had given him a good thrashing.
Those who are condemning the young lady are either too ignorant of Pakistani law and culture or have some other grudge against her which they are venting out by writing inane drivel.
yahan baat aik 15 sala bachai ko marnai ki ho rahi hai.
normally law or law enforcement agencies dont say anything for beating a thief because they dont normally include minors and then of course the retaliatory action is also forgivable.
It has been ignored also if it would have been a retaliatory effort but the fact is that, she had beaten him after she had got hold of him and the thief is a minor too. And she is proudly announcing her brutal act as if she has done something great. In her words,
.. and now I am glad that I slapped that boy as I have a little hope that he might not do such sin again when he remember those slaps.
She has yet to respond to the question that how many good things she have learnt after getting slappings.
Aijaz,
Basically, it boils down to this…
there is absolutely no point in engaging
with you because it is like banging
ones head against a wall. It serves no
purpose.
What’s going to be your next retort to
this….re-posting your original anti-Ghalia
post on your personal blog?
What the f**k do you mean “yahan baat aik 15 sala bachai ko marnai ki ho rahi hai”? Fifteen years old does not an innocent babe make. I sincerely
hope that some day you or someone near and dear to you encounter these “15 sala bachai” in the
middle of the night while they are breaking into
your home or car. Perhaps then you can start
to practice what you so conveniently preach
from the confines of your office, drawing room or wherever else it is that you choose to park your “high horse”.
do whatever you want on your personal blog but this does not seem to be a personal blog place, isnt it?
aur badtameezi kernai se your originality further gets exposed, so dont get overboard.
ACDC’s right. Listen Aijaz, in your eyes Ghalia may be wrong but you’re completely ignoring the reason why she slapped him. Ya, it was wrong that she slapped him before looking into the bag but it’d be extremely bad if he didn’t have her stuff in that garbage bag. Point is that he did. 15 is not as young as some people think it is. By that age you’re suppose to know what’s right and what’s wrong, I have a chawkidar’s kid who’s 15 and I asked him whether he would ever resort to stealing people’s possessions even in the worst of conditions. He said no, because he knows it’s wrong. Aijaz, look, I get what you’re trying to say…..that we should look at it from the kid’s perspective. But dude, look at it from her perspective too. Either you’ve never had a cellphone or anything stolen from you ever in your life or you actually like the people stealing this stuff.
I am sorry FARAH but there is nothing to agree with.
I am not looking at the even by the child’s perspective, we are looking at it from LAW’s perspective.
and law says 15 is not an adult to be treated in crimes or in other things equally. And crimes against a 15 ager is treated more severe. PERIOD
My sense of law does not change when something happens to me and or any near dear.
So interesting…
A girl catches a thief, an adolescent aged 15. Unheard of. Recovers her stolen stuff. Unheard of. Deposits him to the nearest police station and presses charges. Unheard of.
She slaps him in the process, in the heat of the moment, and is big enough to admit regretting it the very next moment. UNHEARD OF.
So, for all the naysayers, let your comments be on this thought: WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE ? I am sure most of you would have no answer.
@REDSNAPPER
the girl slaps the kid b4 recovering her purse..
that is…the kid is found guilty and punished b4 she searches his bag..what if the purse was not recovered from him after being slapped??
@Riaz… but in fact he had stolen her purse
I must say that i’m surprised by the attention to “policital correctness” (how could anyone strike a poor child, lions and tigers and child abuse!) and “technicalities” (before his guilt was proven by digging in the bag of stolen items for the item of interest).
From where i sit… assuming the kid was in fact merely slapped a few times as opposed to beaten to a bloody pulp… justice was served here.
If i had been caught stealing, I wouldn’t hold it against my victim to smack me a couple of times. Ditto if my kid had been caught stealing. Again assuming we’re talking mere slaps (sting for a few hours, sore the next day sort of thing).
If on the other hand, the kid had a broken nose or cheek bone or a dozen stitches or missing teeth… that would be a different matter.
Regarding “in the eyes of the law”… well i’m no layer, likely you aren’t either… what does your sense of justice tell you.
FWIW, if the kid had stolen from me, i would have been satisfied with catching him, reclaiming my stolen goods, verbally scolding him rather than physically scolding him, and bringing him to his parents… but if his bag appeared to contain other stolen items… i would have dragged him to the police.
The Golden Rule comes to mind…
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” – Jesus
Ghalia i told u u need to grow up girl.obviosuly i have to read and comment for you to get better in writing as well as in your real life.how u reacted to my comment clearly reflects that you have no capacity of improving upon your making up of tell tales kind of habbit because u simply can’t even take the negative comments ,if you can’t how can u improve upon.now please donot feel retarded or my comment as trying to prove ur in abilities , because it’s just a thinking pattern that can have mental blocks .so we restict ourselves only to the piture we want to see and failure on other part of admitting or trying to understand what one is trying to point out.
goodluck till your next tell tale come online. cya.
and please idid’nt call you retarted let me clear so that once again you derive the negative responses from my comment.
adieu
” you have problem just do not read my writings:)
thanks!!
sweet heart i have all the three eyes ,fully in working condition mashahllah , very active and blessed .so not at all reading and scanning and reflecting all senses intact. thanks for your great concerns.
keya hoa us bacha ka?…abhi kahani khatam?
Somewhere in the middle of this debate, Aijaz had said that he wouldn’t comment on this topic any more.
@RIAZ, AIJAZ etc.:
You are evading my question. “What would you have done ?”
Its easy to be “holier than thou” and more difficult to act.
On a lighter note, all I can see in the comments here is, as they say in Punjabi, “Na keraan gai, na keren diaan gai !”.
Anyway, congrats Ghalia for taking the bold step. And be safe. The city I am from (Karachi), young boys lesser than aged 15 will also have a pistol when they try to steal or mug. So…do the right thing but be safe.
@redsnapper
why dont you turn unbiased towards anything, try to keep basic principles of laws in mind only and think of the answer yourselves?
@Shueyb Gandapur
you are right, i just came because the lady came up with some newer thoughts and I couldnt sit silent.
anyways ..this is definitely last, inshallah
I wish these kids get their just share in our society and donot need to steal for their livelihood and may allah give us courage to not use our position to exploit anyone else. Aameen.
The law wouldn’t be able to press charges against Ghalia or anything. She wouldn’t have gone to jail or any punishment. Because the kid did steal her stuff and she did apologize. In the eyes of the law, 15 yr olds aren’t looked at as adults is what you’re saying. In 2005, in the eyes of the law, a woman who got raped couldn’t get justice unless she had 4 witnesses. I’m just saying, the law isn’t always accurate. This kind of case wouldn’t even hold out in court, because she hit him for a reason and that reason did turn out to be true. In fact, that kid might just go to jail. But if he had a good enough reason to steal then maybe he wouldn’t been given a small punishment. This Michael guy is right…..in America, if a woman hits a kid who was trying to steal her purse, she wouldn’t have been bothered like this.
1) slapping someone (kid or not kid) “before” knowing whether he was actualy the thief is outragiously wrong… Supporting such act is also (if not equally) wrong. All these people have no justification.
2) trying to ensure that this kid gets “jailed” for the “crime” he committed… i would not favour that either. First, we dont live in a perfect world. He committed a crime alright but what he will face and experience in jail would be far more than the punishment he deserves. It will only make him more of a rebellion and a bigger goon than he currently is.
The kid was a victim of social injustice himself. He was uneducated, didnt know much about right and wrong, and was just hungry and helpless. He ended up doing a wrong thing, but what was needed was not a severe punishment. He needed coaching, a warning, and some food. This should have been enough to make him rethink his decisions in future. Yes if he continues to habitually do such stuff, he could be punished. Not on this instance.
If it was a rich, educated kid of 15 years, stealing for a “kick” i would have slapped him myself (after first determining that he actually did steal). But this poor uneducated kid has his own circumstances. He lives not in our world. If a cat steals my milk, i would not start hitting the cat. The kid needs coaching and a bit of help in understanding right and wrong, not slapping & punishment.
@redsnapper
i have had few experiences of my stuff being stolen by afghan kids when i was in univ hostel.
i always looked the other way and started to be more careful where i leave my stuff..coz they were dirt poor. bcoz in islam..if some one steals due to extreme poverty then there is no HADD on that person..