‘Assassins in uniform’

The city police have resorted to eliminating suspected criminals in staged encounters in a bid to control the spiralling crime rate, with more than 61 alleged criminals having been killed and 22 arrested in more than 70 “encounters” taking place in the past eight months, Pakistan Today has learnt.
However, despite the surge in police encounters, around 522 cases of armed robberies, rape and kidnapping for ransom were registered in August and September alone. Talking to Pakistan Today on condition of anonymity, a senior police official said those acquitted by courts for crimes of robbery and kidnapping for ransom did not refrain from repeating such crimes.
“These criminals know how to manipulate the legal process. We put our lives at stake when arresting these criminals but they manage to return to business after getting bails from courts. In most cases, the witnesses or complainants backtrack from their statements and withdraw their cases or refuse to identify the criminals, often after reaching a settlement or due to fear of reprisal,” he said. The official said according to an unofficial understanding in the police department, criminals involved in murder or rape during robberies or killing hostages in kidnapping for ransom cases were to be “put off for good”. “In recent years, however, several criminals with only a couple of robberies on record were also taken to task in encounters. While many criminals resist arrest and are killed in consequent police action, several others were eliminated just to serve as an example for others,” he said.
According to police record, more than 250 cases relating to robbery, rape and kidnapping for ransom are reported each month, while almost a similar number of cases relating to these crimes are not registered by the police at all.
To date, no report on these police encounters has surfaced. An exception was the murder of a young man from Gawalmandi who was shot by police in Nishtar Colony on suspicion of being a robber. His death fuelled protests from his family and people of the area and an inquiry was ordered under former DIG Training Major Mubashir. After investigating the issue, the DIG concluded that the killing of the young man was unmerited and cases were filed against a DSP and four other police officials, who are yet to be arrested.
Interestingly, in all such encounters, statements coming from the police have been more or less identical. The usual story goes something like this: The suspects opened fire on police when stopped at a checkpoint to which the police responded with retaliatory fire, killing one or two alleged criminals while their accomplices manage to escape. There are, however, little or absolutely no injuries caused to policemen involved in such shootouts with criminals, which raises a question on the authenticity of such gun battles.
POLICE DEFENDS ITSELF:
Punjab Police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar told Pakistan Today that there had been more than 250 police encounters in Punjab during which several police officials had been injured and even killed. “At least 25 police officials have been killed and almost 100 injured during encounters with criminals,” she said.
She said there were around 175,000 policemen controlling a population of around 100 million across Punjab. “If criminals open fire at police then it must retaliate to defend itself. There have been no staged encounters in Lahore, or the rest of Punjab,” she said.
“There are 86 police stations in Lahore region alone with a police force totalling 27,000 in number. About 10,000 out of these are responsible for security control while the remaining 17,000 are responsible for controlling Lahore’s population of around 10 million,” she said. The policemen risked their life to counter crime wherever it took place, she added.
Comparing the figures with countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, that have a police to population ratio of 1 to 400, Pakistan stands far below with only one policeman for every 1,000 people. Despite this, the crime rate has been controlled to a large extent, Nabeela stressed.
RANA SANAULLAH
SUPPORTS ENCOUNTERS:
Supporting killing of hardened criminals, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said such desperadoes should know that they would be killed if they killed innocent people. “Police is not staging encounters. If they stop someone for checking and the person opens fire at them, the police has every right to defend itself. When criminal record of those killed in encounters is checked, it is usually found that they had been involved in serious crimes against society,” he said. Sanaullah said most criminals killed in police encounters were proclaimed offenders and even had bounties on their heads. “The Punjab government has not ordered police to kill these criminals but our policy is that the police must ensure law and order at all costs,” he said.
The law minister added that the government investigated all police encounters and “so far none of such shootouts has been found to be fake”.
“Allegations of fake encounters are made by the killed criminal’s heirs…what else would they say?”

92 vehicles stolen in one month

A report based on crime statistics collected from 99 DPO offices in July, released on Wednesday, showed that Lahore (92), Faisalabad (91) and Karachi Central (68) had the most vehicle snatching cases. However, motor vehicle lifting figures remained unchanged (34 cases per district). The data shows criminal misappropriation cases increased, up from seven FIRs in two districts to 33 in a single district. Criminal trespass cases also saw an increase, 651 FIRs lodged in 29 districts. This number has gone up from 410 cases in 23 districts recorded in June.
The report also revealed a 6 percent increase per district in FIR numbers. 99 districts had 46,346 FIRs registered, the previous figures being 42,780 in 97 districts.
The regional break-up had Punjab reporting the highest crime burden (64 percent) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (20 percent), Sindh (13 percent), Balochistan (two percent and ICT (less than one percent) following. Better outreach, lack of parallel judicial systems and a higher confidence level between the police and the people are said to be the reasons for better crime reportage in Punjab than other regions. Similarly, accidental death cases increased from 223 in 51 districts to 253 in 50 districts. However, hurt FIRs fell by three percent. Terrorism and accidental death (qatl-bis-sabab) cases also saw a drop, both down from four FIRs per district to three. Offences against public tranquility increased to 41 percent, with 187 FIRs filed in six districts as opposed to 110 reported in five districts in June. Counterfeiting currency cases decreased to 6 percent, from 47 per district in June to 44. Ten districts reported 46 percent of the total FIRs – Punjab (seven districts), KP (two) and Sindh (one). Lahore (13 percent), Faisalabad (seven percent) and Rahimyar Khan (five percent) were the highest reporting districts.

To kill or not?

Pakistan Today sought the opinion of citizens on what they thought of the Lahore Police’s new “deterrence policy”.
Kamran Atta, a resident of Shadman, said violent crimes could only be controlled by stern punishment. “I favour killing hardened criminals in police encounters because there is no other way to stop them from killing innocent people. Moreover, what’s the use of arresting them and sending them to prison? Everyone knows our prisons are seats of higher learning for criminals and only breed more violence,” he said.
Voicing a similar opinion, Nasir Khan, a resident of Mason Road, said citizens remained in a state of fear owing to growing incidents of street crimes. “These criminals deserve the punishment they receive at the hands of police. They should be killed,” he said.
Ayesha Abdullah, a banker, said while she was in favour of killing rapists and murderers, the police should make tangible efforts to curb crime.
“These are not police encounters. This is what you call police atrocities,” said Farhan Ahmed, a lawyer, who wanted police to carry out proper investigation instead of staging encounters. “It is not the job of police to kill anyone in an encounter without investigating the matter in detail. These measures only serve to harass people,” he said.
He said police should frame watertight cases against hardened criminals so that they did not manipulate lacunas in the law.
“We must have a witness protection programme so that the citizens can stand by their testimonies without any fear of the criminals. Collection of evidence is another area our police needs to focus on,” he said.
Muhammad Jawad, a student, said most police encounters were staged. “Those who pay police get to live while those who don’t are killed. This is all a means of earning for the police,” he said.
Huma Imtiaz, a law student, argued that police encounters did not control crime rates. “It encourages dependents of those who were innocent to adopt a life of crime in anger and vengeance,” she said.