In all the senseless violence that routinely seems to engulf the port city of Karachi, one murder case has stood out above the rest — the death of 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan at the hands of the sons of powerful feudal families from Sindh. Reportedly, Shahzeb was angered when the servant of one of the boys teased his sister and a minor altercation occurred. Even though the issue was apparently resolved, the boys, Shahrukh Jatoi and Nawab Siraj Talpur, targeted Shahzeb later on in the night, shooting him dead when he was making his way to a friend’s place. All this because feudal egos had been challenged by a young man defending the honour of his sister. The suspects in this case are young boys themselves but their attitude and the fact that they think they can get away with even blue murder with impunity tells that the coming generation of feudals is no better than the ones before it.
There has been an uproar in the social media with many young voices lending themselves to the protests against this senseless crime. There are calls for peaceful demonstrations and for citizens to wake up and prevent more such cases from happening. As of current news reports, the suspects are on the run and there is intense pressure being mounted upon Shahzeb’s family to drop the charges. This intimidation is present despite the fact that Shahzeb’s father is a DSP in the police. If a man within the ranks of the Sindh police is facing a hard time trying to find justice for his only son, one cannot begin to imagine the trials the common man has to face. The fact that the Shahzeb Khan murder case has happened at about the same time as the uproar created by protesters in neighbouring India over the tragic rape and subsequent death of a young girl on a New Delhi bus has stirred something in the public’s conscience here. The shock and horror at the viciousness of this inhuman act has made people demand that justice finally be served. In no civilised society anywhere in the world does one see the concept of feudalism take such murderous heights. Shahzeb was the light of his family’s life and they need justice and closure. Will the system give it to them? *