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When the police fail to protect IF only we could be as vehement in protesting against the many cases of death in local police custody, as we were in our protest against Amir Cheema’s death in German police custody. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Islamabad recently in a peaceful protest against the German police’s verdict that Amir Cheema had committed suicide while in custody. Pakistani student Cheema had been arrested for apparently attempting to kill the editor-in-chief of a German newspaper which had re-printed the Danish cartoons that were earlier condemned throughout the Muslim world. The protesters demanded the government to expel Germany’s ambassador from Pakistan and announce an economic boycott of Germany as a mark of protest at what they call Cheema’s murder at the hands of the German police. Contrast our loud and vigorous reaction to Amir Cheema’s death to our practically silent response to the deaths of tens of Pakistanis every year from torture while in the custody of our very own police. Just last week, Dawn reported the plight of the brother of a torture victim Saeed Ahmed, who died in police custody in Lahore a year ago. Until now, the victim’s brother, who is a federal government employee, has been unable even to get an inquiry ordered into the death of his brother, let alone get a case registered against the alleged guilty police officials. According to the victim’s brother, Saeed Ahmed died in police custody and was buried by the Edhi Welfare Centre in Lahore as an unclaimed person, despite the fact that the police were aware of his identity. He also said that the autopsy report attested by a well-known medical college in Lahore claimed that the deceased died of sunstroke, whereas a death certificate issued by a well-known hospital had stated that multiple bruises were found on different parts of the body. In fighting for justice, families of police torture victims like Saeed Ahmed have had to depend on the support of human rights organizations, both local and foreign, who have been in the forefront of criticisms of our police force for being abusive and corrupt. It is these human rights organizations who have been highlighting the criminal acts of our police in committing or failing to prevent extra-judicial killings, either in the form of torture to death in custody or killings in staged encounters. Even members of the Islamabad police are no less guilty of this shameful practice. In October 2005, reports surfaced that a man was killed while in custody at Kohsar Police Station. A medical board comprising three senior doctors of the Federal Government Services Hospital who performed the autopsy confirmed that the victim had been severely beaten with a blunt weapon before he died. Newspapers are full of reports about deaths in police custody occurring in all parts of the country: Pervaiz Akhtar died after torture by the Faisalabad police in April 2006; Shah Muhammad died after torture by the Sialkot police in February 2006; Asif Imdad died in February 2006 after being picked up by the Karachi police for possession of drugs and tortured; Abdul Ghaffar Shaikh died while in the custody of the Jacobabad police in February 2006. In November 2005, 65-year-old Muhammad Ashraf who had been picked up by the Rawalpindi police for investigation into a kidnapping case died in police custody; Azmatullah died after being tortured by the Sheikhupura police in September 2005; Imran also died in the custody of the Sheikhupura police in September 2005 after being tortured; Saleem Ghazi died after torture by the Haripur police in August 2005; Khalid Saifullah died in May 2005 after torture by the Sargodha police who threw his body into a canal; Sajid Ali died in the custody of the Vehari police in May 2005, etc., etc. A local human rights group, Madadgar, announced earlier this year that the total number of police abuses in the country in 2005 numbered 1,356, while Amnesty International estimates that more than 100 persons die in police custody in Pakistan every year. Such deaths from police abuse are usually dubbed as suicides by the police. Many other cases escape attention, particularly when the bodies are simply abandoned in fields or ditches. Deaths in police custody in Pakistan are not isolated incidents caused by a few lower-ranking officers. One human rights organization terms deaths in police custody in this country as by-products of a police system that deliberately neglects command responsibility. There have been cases, as in the death at Kohsar Police Station, where the police officers responsible for causing deaths in custody are arrested, but convictions are rare. Cases of death in police custody are usually hushed up, with responsible officers usually not brought to justice and action usually not taken against the officer-in-charge for his omission to supervise the lower-ranking officers. Pakistan has not only signed the UN Convention Against Torture in 1984. Its own Constitution and Penal Code clearly forbid torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments, let alone torture leading to death. In May 2005, a Lahore High Court had even ruled in a petition that torture in police custody is unconstitutional and that police officials involved in such an offence must be penalized. Yet, torture by the police is very much a routine procedure in Pakistan so much so that it has become, as one human rights organization describes it, endemic. It is common knowledge that the police usually use torture to extract confessions and bribes from detainees, with suspects usually confessing to crimes regardless of their actual culpability or usually paying policemen to gain their freedom. Despite efforts since 2002 to reform the police system, the arbitrary arrest and detention of persons and the use of excessive force on them to extract information or bribes still continue unabated. Thorough investigations of arbitrary arrests and of bribe requests are usually still not being conducted, and thus responsible officers are still not being brought to justice. The failure to prosecute consistently plus the lengthy trial delays have only contributed to a culture of impunity. This state of affairs will continue so long as we do not enforce command responsibility within the country’s police system. And so long as we do not correct our police’s attitude on abuse and extra-judicial killings, the image of our police will remain far from being a fair and just security force. And so long as those in authority, whether they be rural landlords, political and religious parties or influential individuals, do not develop a greater respect for the law, the image of our country will continue to be likened to a failed state in which the rule of law is usually not respected. Imagine if teachers use illegal force on students and are not disciplined. Imagine if patients in hospitals are being killed by doctors’ illegal negligence and no one gets suspended. Why are our police officers getting away with the illegal use of lethal force on people who are in their custody?
