Pakistan’s celebrity windscreen-smasher given 11-year jail sentence

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/31/pakistan-windscreen-smasher-gullu-butt-jail-sentence

Version 0 of 1.

With a handlebar moustache worthy of a Bollywood villain and a national notoriety that has seen his name become a byword for politically backed violence, Gullu Butt has gone from small-time hoodlum to cult figure in Pakistan in just four months.

But although film roles have been devised for him and a smartphone app about his antics downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, Butt will not be allowed to cash in on his unexpected fame.

On Thursday he was given an 11-year jail sentence for vandalising cars during a standoff between police and anti-government activists in Lahore on 17 June.

The film broadcast that day of Butt smashing windscreens and headlights with a long club became a sensation not just because he made no effort to conceal his identity in front of the television cameras but also because dozens of riot police failed to do anything to stop him.

Accusations that he enjoyed powerful protection may have helped ensure a harsh sentence, which the judge on Friday directed would see Butt serve out his time as a kitchen labourer.

He has been accused of being a police agent provocateur, paid to try to incite otherwise peaceful crowds at a tense standoff between police and the followers of Tahir-ul-Qadri, a rabble-rousing cleric-politician.

Qadri’s supporters had been attempting to prevent police from removing barriers placed near the headquarters of Qadri’s Minhaj-ul-Quran International organisation in Lahore.

At least eight activists were killed and many injured after the incident turned violent, creating a political crisis for the government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif, which was accused of disastrously mishandling the situation.

Despite the horror of what Qadri’s supporters described as a massacre, Butt, whose real name is Shahid Nazeer, was well on his way to becoming a minor celebrity courtesy of social media users who gleefully manipulated images of him wielding his club.

An app was devised in which players were invited to help Butt smash car windows and eat mangos – he has said he should be paid royalties for the game.

Asha’ar Rehman, the Lahore resident editor of Dawn, a national newspaper, said Butt was like some popular film characters, a “goofy guy who has no sense of what he was doing”.

In recent appearances Butt, prayer beads in hand and large Pakistani flag pinned to his shirt, has attempted to portray himself as a pious victim of circumstances, and even invited Qadri and his other detractors to attend his wedding.

“He comes across as a jolly kind of gent who does something in a rush of blood,” Rehman said. “There’s a feeling locally that he’s been treated harshly and used as a scapegoat whilst no one has yet been held accountable for killing [Qadri’s] workers.”

But his case became controversial after his name was endlessly cited by both Qadri and Imran Khan, the former cricketer and now opposition politician who has been leading more than two months of anti-government demonstrations in the heart of the capital, Islamabad.

They accused Butt of being an activist for the prime minister’s governing faction of the Pakistan Muslim League and epitomising a thuggish approach to politics.

But while being led away by police on Thursday, Butt was heard to shout “Go Nawaz Go”, a catchphrase popularised during the many recent protests in Islamabad calling for fresh elections.

His lawyers said they would appeal.