THE family of a nine-month-old baby have been forced into hiding, after their young child was charged with attempted murder by Pakistani police.
One officer has been suspended and an official inquiry has been launched in the wake of the farcical case that saw nine-month-old Musa Khan fingerprinted in a police station for his supposed involvement in a riot in one of Lahore's slums.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
When forced to make an appearance in court, Musa sat on his grandfather's lap and had to be comforted with a bottle of milk.
The episode has "shone an embarrassing light on Pakistan's shambolic criminal justice system," The Guardian says, in which underpaid and ill-trained police can often lay false charges due to either corruption or individual incompetence.
According to a report filed by police, Musa was one of a number of people who tried to kill gas company workers as they attempted to disconnect houses who had not paid their gas bills. People living in the area, including Musa, were reported to have thrown stones at the gas company staff and the policemen accompanying them.
Locals insisted that the protest was peaceful. "There were only women in the houses at daytime and they resisted this discontinuing of supply," Yasin said. "Later we blocked the road and raised slogans against police."
Analysts say that the practice of charging entire families is sometimes used as a form of collective punishment. The judge presiding over the case granted Musa bail and ordered police to explain why they had brought the charges.
Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab province, ordered an immediate inquiry into the case.
-
Europe’s apples are peppered with toxic pesticidesUnder the Radar Campaign groups say existing EU regulations don’t account for risk of ‘cocktail effect’
-
Political cartoons for February 1Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Tom Homan's offer, the Fox News filter, and more
-
Will SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic make 2026 the year of mega tech listings?In Depth SpaceX float may come as soon as this year, and would be the largest IPO in history
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Normalising relations with the Taliban in AfghanistanThe Explainer The regime is coming in from the diplomatic cold, as countries lose hope of armed opposition and seek cooperation on counterterrorism, counter-narcotics and deportation of immigrants
