"If 200 can be ready to lynch her, why can't 600 stand up to protect her?" questions ASP Shehrbano

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, who rescued a woman from an enraged mob in Lahore, revealed new details of the Ichhra Bazaar incident, which she believes will serve as a future case study. She raised questions about society's moral standards, as bystanders did not intervene to help a woman under threat of lynching.

In an interview with Sky News, the courageous cop underscored the sensitivity of the situation which also put her life at risk. 

“There are certain things that you have to do in the line of duty and sometimes you have to go beyond that line of duty,” she said.

“Our lives, when we are in such a situation become pretty secondary and not so important because the life of the victim and the image of the country are at stake”, the policewoman added.

"It has made the society question itself."

A police officer who saved the life of woman accused of blasphemy in Pakistan shares her memories of the incident with @SkyYaldaHakim.

Read more: https://t.co/fUC07dWGFM

📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/tLOyAJJdDq

— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 4, 2024

While sharing details of the incident, she mentioned that upon reaching the scene, the woman, who was falsely accused of blasphemy by a mob for wearing a dress with Arabic calligraphy print, feared for her life. 

“When I got in there, she said that she would be killed…Afterwards, when we got her isolated and when we had her in a secure location, I made her change her clothes. That’s when she smiled for the first time and the first thing she said was that she wanted to go back to her family and she wanted to meet her child,” ASP Naqvi revealed. 

She expressed hope that this would be the last time such an unfortunate incident occurs in Pakistan. The incident, she argued, forced society to confront its moral depravity.

Describing the scene, the lady police officer recounted her five-minute walk from the main road to the incident location. According to her, the area is a bustling bazaar crowded with customers and multiple shops, yet “people were going on with their daily activities, all the while knowing that there’s a woman surrounded by around 200 people, ready to be lynched.”

ASP Naqvi highlighted the incident as a critical question on “society's conscience,” urging others to examine “why it has morally degenerated” while posing a thought-provoking question,“If 200 people can be ready to lynch her, why can’t six hundred people be ready to protect her?”