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IT was only a matter of time before yet another account emerged of innocents losing their lives at the hands of an out of control police. And so it turned out on Saturday, when a couple along with their daughter and a friend were shot dead by law enforcement officials near Sahiwal.
Of the couple’s other minor children on the scene, the son escaped with a bullet injury while two daughters remained unhurt.
The police (particularly in Sindh and Punjab) have become accustomed to glibly using the pretext of fighting terrorism to cover up egregious abuses of power.
Explore: A licence to kill
After initially floating a story depicting the incident as a daring rescue of kidnapped children, it produced a formulaic response.
According to the Punjab CTD, after ‘terrorists’ fired on police personnel trying to stop the vehicles in which they were travelling, a shootout ensued and four people were killed, “reportedly as a result of firing by their own accomplices”. The brazen fabrication was soon exposed by eyewitness accounts, including that of the slain couple’s son.
Yet on Sunday, there was the astoundingly tone-deaf spectacle of Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat describing the deaths as ‘collateral damage’ — a more dehumanising term can scarcely be imagined — caused in an attempt by security personnel to prevent an even bigger carnage by terrorists.
This is similar to the end justifies the means argument advanced several years ago by supporters of drone attacks in the northern region — an argument vociferously condemned by PTI chairman Imran Khan at the time. Meanwhile, the PPP and PML-N, so full-throated in their denunciation of the Sahiwal incident, are using the issue for political point-scoring.
Sindh’s ‘encounter specialist’ Rao Anwar — prime suspect in Naqeebullah Mehsud’s murder, but yet to go on trial for it — operated with impunity in Karachi, as did SP Chaudhry Aslam until his assassination in 2014.
Dawn Investigation: Rao Anwar and the killing fields of Karachi
Punjab under the PML-N had also long been a theatre for staged shootouts, with far-fetched accounts of purported face-offs against vicious criminals (with rarely even an injury incurred by the cops) going unchallenged.
Explore Herald: Punjab's 'encounters' with sectarianism
No doubt, there are brave, upstanding police officials whose work is a credit to their profession. However, they are eclipsed in a culture of policing where the lack of accountability is growing in tandem with the militarisation of law enforcement. In such an environment, police departments see themselves less as public servants upholding the law and more as an army fighting an elusive enemy.
And everywhere is a battlefield. Instead of condoning the police’s worst impulses, as the law minister seemed to be doing on Sunday, Punjab’s PTI-led government must demonstrate it will no longer tolerate trigger-happy law enforcement personnel.
Find out more: Reforming Pakistan's criminal justice system
Provincial legislatures need to urgently address the shortcomings in the criminal justice system, of which the police are a critical pillar. People should not have to fear being killed, either in crossfire or as a result of ‘mistaken identity’.
Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2019
Comments (20) Closed
Media is mostly propagating fake and fabricated emotional stories about the incident. The politicians and police officers who could be termed as architects of fake encounters/ present police force are sitting in the Parliament such as Shahbaz Sharif in the NA , Hamza Shahbaz in Punjab PA and Rana Maqbool ex IG in the Senate. How could the Opposition be depended upon for any remedial legislation?. I would believe the JIT report on the incident and nothing else.
With the exception of a few incidents (Model Town Lahore, Naqibullah Khan and the latest Sahiwal episode) that have come to light due to intense media focus, there must be countless other such incidents where credit was claimed by the law enforcement for killing innocent victims. Public may never trust police again after hearing their shameful and changing version of the events surrounding the latest incident.
Its very sad that a law abiding family was killed by CTD team without any justification. CTD has changed its story many times to cover up the killing which indicates that the whole incident was fabricated. The intelligence tip was the basis of the operation which was probably wrong. Our system to gather intelligence and pass on to CTD without any intermediary scrutiny and validation is the main reason of such ruthless killings. We need more civilian control over the police force to make sure such incidents do not happen in the future. Any police killing in any province must trigger an automatic inquiry by an independent investigation team and police officers found guilty must be charged with murder.
This happening in Sahiwal imagine what must be happening in Tribal areas. No journalist has visited those places, no news from there as if those areas don't exist at all.
The worst part is covering-up by their officers. This depicts sheer incompetence of the authorities
More important is to punish those who hold tens of thousands hostage in traffic.
Daily encounter of ordinary Public is going on sometimes Law enforcing agencies and some times by political parties.
Terrorist fleeing in 800cc Suzuki Alto? The slowest and the most basic of the family-economy cars which suck at acceleration speeds and brakes, and can be chased by a kid on motorbike.
Terrorist instead use vehicles equal to or larger then police vehicles such as 4D truck/jeeps/double-cabin, a 2D at least.
Besides, every toll-plaza is designed such that every vehicle has to stop (barricades, danda, tire-bursting spikes". There's no way they could not have been made stopped at the Sahiwal checkpoint.
Acceptance of negligence by the police, and resignation of responsible heads is the least acceptable to public if PTI govt was any serious about dreaming UK-comparable system in Pakistan as it's a norm there.
Time has come to scrutinize :the people" who order fake encounters!
A well written article and a plea for sanity in a trigger-happy land. Sorrow...
Gordon D. Walker
Canada
Thank you for this article. Now, everybody's fears are finally confirmed that we aren't safe and the terrorists are the people who are supposed to protect us.
Can there be a better Editorial than this! You have spoken everything, in shortest possible words, Bravo! Yes, we all stand together in demanding justice. But the thought of parents being slained in front of minor children is heart wrenching.
The police force could never be that irresponsible! Indeed aspects of brutality have been increasingly common with police forces of both Sindh and the Punjab. Police while going on crack downs against perpetrators too often cause irreparable loss to innocent civilians. This all demonstrates a flawed police system prevalent in the country.
Punjab's Police Act needs to be revisited and reforms to correct the ills associated with the system should be introduced.
Same atrocities are committed by your well praised KPK police routinely. A month earlier an influential SHO at peshawar raided a home, humiliated the female of that house and picked up a retired FC personal from that house. Few hours later his dead body was returned to his family. Protest erupted, roads were blocked, highlighted in national newspaper but nothing happened. What is this??????
What makes the incident more grave and condemnable is the concocted explanation by the Govt officials.Not only the person's responsible for this horrendous crime should be punished but corrective measures should also be taken to avoid such occurrence.
Government should start official investigation and take them to court. Government should not just hold news conferences and close the case by making statements. This is not a simple news item for government to make announcements and stop.
People wish to be protected and then again they do not. If no one goes after terrorists at all we can just wait for the next Army Pub,ic School massacre, because it will come. Terrorists will always strike where we are most vulnerable.
The only solution is exemplary punishment to killers and comprehensive reforms in police, absolutely banning shooting by police like the way they did in current and so many other unnoticed instances..
There was noting fake about one of them being a paid terrorist.
@RJM, "This happening in Sahiwal imagine what must be happening in Tribal areas. No journalist has visited those places, no news from there as if those areas don't exist at all."
YEs and perhaps that is what PTM is complaining about.