Published in Dawn Magazine on July 18, 1999
I HEARD about it when I was in Saudi Arabia, and I have every reason to believe that the story is true.
Returning home in the dead of night, a foreign executive ran over a young Bedouin and left him bleeding on the ground. He figured that since no one else had seen the accident, no one would guess that he had done it. Little did he know that the locals had their own highly organized network of intelligence agents. Someone in the neighbourhood whose job it was to note such things reported his late arrival, and while he was still in bed the next morning, the police came over and arrested him.
The trial was short and swift. He admitted his guilt and agreed to pay the victim's mother whatever the Qazi decided. But she was firm. "I have not slept a wink since my son's body was brought to me," she said, "and I shall not rest until his killer dies the same horrible death that my boy did." The Qazi urged her to forgive and forget, but to no avail. Finally they told him to be ready to die.
The next morning he was taken to a courtyard and told to walk toward the centre. He hadn't yet reached the spot when a jeep hit him from behind. As he lay writhing on the ground, the jeep ran over him a couple of times. It took a few minutes for him to die, and all the while the old woman watched him contentedly. When he stopped breathing, she smiled and said, "Now I can sleep in peace."
By Shakir Lakhani
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