In July, 2024, a kidnapping made headlines across Pakistani media. According to the victim, the famous screenwriter Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar, he was lured at night to a place by a woman named ‘Aamna Urooj’ where his phone, cash and wallet were snatched from him. The snatchers then made Qamar transfer about Rs 250,000 to their account and blindfolded him, leaving him at an unknown location.

On paper, this appears to be a harrowing account of ‘honey trap’ kidnapping. However, a significant portion of the digital Pakistani audiences found it anything but serious. A few hours after the incident, the memes were already pooling in.

The memes were generally about the fact that Qamar had said he chose nighttime to be the right hour to go to the woman’s place because his physician told him he could not go out in the sun.

In more recent days, a video was also leaked in which Qamar can be seen being intimate with Aamna Urooj. Qamar says that he was held at gunpoint, to perform those acts. However, once again, the internet responded viciously to Qamar’s apparent plight.

In this brief analysis, I will attempt to reason how it could be that such an incident would receive widespread ridicule rather than condemnation.

Hypocrisy

It is public news that Khalil-ur-Rehman is apparently against ‘obscene’ acts of ‘intimacy’ among members of the opposite sex. He has publicly spoken out against co-education and also lambasted Aurat March for its bold posters.

However, inconsistencies between these beliefs and Qamar’s own actions are very obvious. For example, while being a critic of environments employing and/or providing education to both sexes, his own dramas feature both sexes. This is a very basic inconsistency that has yet to be explored meaningfully in any interview that the screenwriter has given.

Furthermore, there is a clear inconsistency in Qamar’s beliefs that women should be allowed to choose who they want for marriage, but are automatically invalidated if they engage in intimate actions.

This is seemingly even more incompatible with Qamar’s decision to visit Urooj at late night.

There are many auto-immune conditions that could be grounds for not going out in the sun. However, the sun sets before dusk. There is plenty of time to schedule the meeting at a much less suspicious time.

These apparent instances of inconsistencies are the main drivers of the memes online.

Seriousness of the Kidnapping

If one had only the memes and the online discourse as a source, what happened to Khalil-ur-Rehman appears comical.

Many detractors of the seriousness of this incident claim that Qamar got what he deserved.

However, here is a question:

Does a person with double standards deserve to be put through a potentially deadly crime?

According to Qamar, his valuables were snatched from him in a place where he was expecting to meet alone with a person. There was consent involved for Qamar to come to this place. To then be robbed and kidnapped vindicates Qamar of his supposed hypocrisy – simply because he was not forcing anyone here to do anything.

Moreover, firearms were also involved, which could have potentially escalated the incident into a more heinous crime.

Even if we consider the fact that no physical harm was done, Qamar was under gunpoint and blindfolded and driven off to an unknown place. This is disorienting and resembles a near-death experience. Victims of kidnapping can develop major psychiatric problems including major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Stockholm’s Syndrome.

All of these conditions are serious mental issues.

So, why would anyone joke about kidnapping?

Sadism in Pakistan

Sadism, in its essence, is finding pleasure in the misery of others.

Unfortunately, as can be seen in the online discourse of major figures in Pakistan, sadism has become common. Sadism can be found in people making jokes on cricketing star Haris Rauf’s reaction to a fan hassling him in public. Sadism can also be found in people trolling the death of former Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef’s mother and his own poor health.

I do understand that I would probably be very unfair in discounting the context for this trolling. After all, all of these figures have been involved in major upsets for the public of Pakistan.

However, making fun of one’s experience of being kidnapped is an act of sadism which has become too common. Even political commentators with clout, like Muzammil Shah can be seen making light of this violent crime.

But what is the problem with making fun of the kidnapping?

The problem lies in laughing at the victim. It normalizes a pathological behavior of deriving pleasure out of violence inflicted on others. This is indicative of psychopathic tendencies and to see how prevalent it is at the current moment should be cause for alarm.

Why?

It is a problem when we open up the risk of dehumanizing victims with genuine concerns. We open our mainstream discourse to ridicule others publicly.

We risk hurting those who have gone through traumatic experiences.

Even when we ridicule a certain public figure, this could change our attitude as a society towards crimes like kidnapping and robbery.

Conclusion

It is nigh impossible to stop the trolling culture in Pakistani digital spheres. This is because technology has been disseminated to every wrung of society. Almost everyone is on social media. Almost everyone has an opinion.

And many of these opinions are very egocentric.

Another equally impossible problem is of our own sadistic tendencies. No matter who the victim is, a violent crime is a violent crime. It has no legal justification – otherwise it would not be a crime.

Whatever Khalil-ur-Rehman’s beliefs are. However nonsensical and intellectually deficient they might be, it does not take away from the violent nature of the crime.

It is truly unfortunate that crime in Pakistan is now being justified based on the victim’s borderline benign beliefs.