Daily Times

It was not as though I was trawling some vile pornographic underbelly looking to be shocked; this was everybody’s friendly neighbourhood Facebook where I stumbled across something so vile, so revolting that it shook me out of the numbness most of us Pakistanis have slowly enveloped ourselves in as a necessary defence/survival mechanism in order to avoid going completely insane in this ‘land of the pure’.
A few weeks ago there was news, which shocked and appalled every decent Pakistani, of the woman who had been gang raped and the crime being recorded and uploaded on the internet for the world to indulge in. Similar cases have sprung up in India as well, where the internet has been used as a tool of voyeurism by the closet pervert hiding behind the safe anonymity of cyberspace. What I saw a couple of days ago by complete accident was a video posted by a man whose profile page revealed him to be a student and a resident of Kohat and originally from Swat. I will not mention his name because a witch-hunt can never be justified. However, on March 12, 2015, this student uploaded a video that depicted a sadistic and brutal rape of another young man in broad daylight while appallingly you can view people passing by and not lifting a finger to intervene.
The video shows a man, aged around 19 or 20, struggling as he is violently held down by three other men. They are all Pashto speaking and, evidently, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is where this video originates from. Clearly there is a mighty struggle going on but the desperate victim is soon overpowered, his clothes ripped away from his quivering body and then he is subjected to a horrifying rape with an object that is either a wooden tree stump or a jagged rock. The criminals viciously assault their defenceless victim in broad daylight while passersby can be seen walking by minding their own business. The assault goes on for a few minutes until the perpetrators appear somewhat sated as blood starts to spill from the victim’s wounds. Maybe, they reckon, he has learned his lesson. After that the dazed victim stands up, stark naked and is pushed around here and there — that is as much as I could watch.
There is no attempt at all by the criminals to hide their identities, no fear of retribution and the event has been uploaded boastfully and watched by over 40,000 people till last count. It is uploaded as a trophy video to show the world how people who are different or weak should be treated. It is as sickening a sight as I have ever seen in my entire life.
There are certain issues that this horror brings to light. Firstly, rape is a crime in Pakistan as is uploading a video of somebody being humiliated and tortured. Secondly, Facebook ought to be considered culpable for allowing videos of such appalling and clearly criminal events to be shared as entertainment for weeks before it decides to finally pull it down after frantic reports by one individual (that being me). Thirdly, having reported this crime to the cyber police here in Pakistan there is the slight problem of the fact that two nights ago (March 26) Facebook purged the video and the account of the individual who had uploaded it. Therefore, unfortunately, contacting the cyber police or various human rights organisations has met with frustration as the video no longer exists online.
Surely Facebook should be responsible for providing the cyber police with the evidence they require in order to pursue the matter legally, this assuming that the police might think it a crime worth bothering about at all. Had the victim been a president’s or one of our ministers’ sons, then perhaps things might have been different. I have managed to calm myself down since the last 48 hours have passed and I was able to bring this issue to the attention of some people who actually do take the trouble to try to make Pakistan a better place to live in. If there is anybody at all out there who is reading this and who would think it a matter worth pursuing, it would mean so much to the voiceless, helpless victims out there who have faced such horrific traumas to know that there is somebody who cares.
The three men who raped the victim and the cameraman who shot the trophy video need justice served to them one way or another. It may require asking Facebook to share the offending video with the police and the rest should be easy, only if there is a will. The problem is: does the police even care? Anyone reading this in a position to help? Let me implore you to somehow pressurise the police to acquire the information they need from Facebook in order to pursue justice and set an example for all those who perpetrate such horrors. If such criminals consider it their right to dish out such vigilante justice to the weak and defenceless, then surely they need to face the brutal realities of the law as well before they face the ultimate judgment at the hands of their Maker.
If there is any way in which the police can be persuaded to pursue this matter, even that will be a giant step forward for the voiceless victims of this nation. Otherwise, that young man’s pain and suffering will go unpunished. Who knows if he will ever recover from the horrors inflicted on him and the rape that has been witnessed 40,000 times over, raped and humiliated 40,000 times over? If nobody is prepared to raise a voice against such barbaric crimes and let them silently pass into oblivion, then maybe that nameless victim is better off dead.

The writer is a film historian, director and entrepreneur based in Islamabad