TO do away with the menace of extrajudicial killings carried out by law-enforcement officials in the country, it is essential that the institutions concerned — the police hierarchy itself, the courts and the administration — send out a clear message that there will be consequences for this crime. In this regard, while hearing an appeal on Monday, a Sindh High Court bench ordered the registration of a case against five policemen for the murder of two men in an alleged encounter in Karachi’s Surjani Town area last year. The court set aside the conviction of the appellant while observing that there were loopholes in the prosecution’s story and mentioning that the policemen had murdered the two men in question under the cover of an encounter. Unfortunately, this dubious method is used by law enforcers across the country, mainly because the criminal justice system has failed, while black sheep in uniform also settle personal scores by dubbing their victims ‘criminals’ or ‘terrorists’, and thereafter murdering them. Perhaps the most well-known case in this regard has been the Naqeebullah Mehsud affair, in which former cop Rao Anwar and a host of other policemen working under him have been accused of murdering the young man from Waziristan and a number of others in a fake encounter in Karachi while claiming that the victims were militants working for terrorist outfits.

If fake encounters — and the associated murders of innocent people — are to be done away with, those men in uniform who resort to such criminal practices must be punished. The message must be clear: those who engage in these methods will not be able to get away with the crime. Of course, this is easier said than done as police forces across the country have been known to boast ‘encounter specialists’ within their ranks who have earned considerable infamy for taking the law into their own hands. Along with strengthening the criminal justice system, the police hierarchy and courts must punish those law enforcers who indulge in extrajudicial killings.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2020