Brutal and inhuman killing and burning of Farkhunda ashamed us all around the world. Both local and international media are repeatedly showing the painful scenes when a helpless woman was brutally tortured, mutilated and then burnt down by a group of merciless and stone-hearted people. The sad incident has left behind numerous question marks on our social character, our poor understanding of religion, our utilization of religion for our dangerous purposes, lack of courage as members of society, our trend of blindly following a crowd and weakness of our security forces.

At the same time, it shows how much we are away from actual religion and use it only for displaying others few acceptable things and also the inactiveness of our so-called NGOs that utilized this occasion for their own benefits. A good aspect of Afghan society also came into light that society is now more socially aware due to internet and large number of social networking sites.

True motives behind her killing are still hidden but now, not a single person is ready to accept it as it was mentioned in the beginning that she insulted Holy Koran. People are sure that she became a victim of a plot in which the emotions and religious sentiments of common people were tactfully utilized. There are many speculations about the motives and circumstances that gave birth to this sad incident. Unfortunately, our country is still in tight grips of ignorant and really cunning gang of people who use religion for their own purposes. There are large numbers of fake saints and spiritual healers in different corners of country who loot the innocent and ignorant people on the name of religion. As they are involved in criminal activities so they often keep a number of strong thugs and assistants to bully the people and silence those who might interfere or object on their work. Shrines of a number of saints are occupied by such criminal groups. These groups not only loot people but they are also involved in a number of criminal activities like selling drugs, and even raping the girls who come or are brought by their relatives for spiritual healing and treatment.

Here, another strange practice is also common. On the name of spiritual healing, some religious texts are written on a paper and given to patients to wear around their necks or dip it in water and drink the water. Though it is considered a good source of religious treatment but it is also used by these fake saints and scholars.

In Farkhunda’s case, it is believed that she had objected on one of the similar writings and it was given the name of blasphemy. The number of culprits who were in the front to catch, torture and then set ablaze Farkhunda were the workers or thugs of the scholar who had given orders of the killing of Farkhunda. Another aspect is the unlimited authority of these so-called scholars and saints who can condemn a person to death if it pleases them. If government and our security organizations carry out research, they can find thousands of such fake scholars and spiritual healers who are looting the people on the name of religion. This sad incident has given us a unique opportunity to take a nation-wide action against these thugs.

There are also reports that majority of the criminals caught were unaware of the basic teachings of Islam. Though this discovery is not something unexpected but it has been discovered very late. If the angry crowd had asked the same question from them on the spot, this sad incident could have been averted. It shows the true condition of religion in our society when people are not only unaware of the religion but also utilize it only for making a show-off on a number of occasions and usually these show-offs end in something evil.

Our general public is also the criminal of this crime as they either directly got involved in this or they stood silently to watch to let this criminal act happen. It shows the deteriorating status of our social courage and ethics when we either become a part of a wrong act or keep silently watching it, without raising our voice against it.

However, the following events are also hopeful. It is not the only incident of its kind. In our villages and rural areas, large number of people fell victim to these stupid people who are using the name of religion for the criminal activities. However, it is the only incident that got such mass public attention, thanks to social networking sites and active media. The Media were found to be very much effective in this case when large number of people were kept updated about the progress in this regard.

Though the role of police was not satisfactory in this case but later on, they tried to compensate for this by catching the criminals involved in this barbarous crime. Almost 42 suspected people have been caught in this regard and according to police, more arrests are expected. It is the demand of public and our political leaders as well that the criminals should be tried in the least time possible. They should be made to face the severe punishments for their crime. This would partly stop the way of such incidents in future.