Out of 2,115 people killed in 2015 in encounters by law enforcement agencies across the country, 830 people, including a woman, died in Sindh, according to a report compiled by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
The report says this number was a decrease from 2014′s encounter-related deaths.
Some highlights of the HRCP’s annual report, ‘State of Human Rights in 2015′, were discussed by social activists at the Karachi Press Club the other day.
The report focuses on law and order in Karachi and says that while encounter killings were rampant in the country, including the port city, it was less frequent as compared to 2014. A total of 696 people were killed in encounters in Karachi in 2015, whereas in 2014, 925 were killed. The report also says that Sindh saw a 42% reduction in murders in 2015 against 2014’s figures.
Commenting on the report, Dr Tauseef Ahmed, the chairperson of the department of mass communication at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, said he feels that the role of democratic governments, parliaments and courts are limited, while the role of the armed forces is increasing. “Human rights violations are increasing and so is extra-judicial killing. The [Karachi] operation should be conducted according to the Constitution,” he added.
Asad Iqbal Butt of the HRCP, referring to the deaths of Muttahida Qaumi Movement worker Aftab Ahmed and an activist in Naushero Feroz, said, “You [law enforcement agencies] are the protectors but by such actions, you are driving the society towards anarchy.” He called for transparent accountability of the officers responsible for these incidents.
Dr Riaz Ahmed Shaikh from the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology called for the de-politicisation of the police force. “There should be an accountability mechanism for these police officers,” he said. “How easily can they say that they killed four men in an encounter?”
The report, however, quotes police officials and says crime did go down in Karachi in 2015. The number of people killed in targeted attacks in 2015 was 989, as compared to 1,925 people in 2014. According to the police, 2015 recorded a 53% decline in killings, 80% decline in terrorism, 98% decline in kidnapping for ransom and 98% fall in cases of extortion.