- Who will rein in lawless law- enforcers?
The tragic killings of a mother and father in front of their children by the CTD personnel was the latest barbaric act by those who are paid to provide security to the common man. Though the incident was only a tip of the iceberg, the details of how innocent family members were gunned down in broad day light on a busy highway showed that the CTD personnel were confident of getting away with the act as usual. The initial responses from the law minister and the governor of Punjab were unbelievably callous with the former describing the horror as “collateral damage” and the later calling it a case of being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Raja Basharat’s statement regarding the CTD operation being an intelligence based operation which was “100 per cent correct” once again raises disturbing questions about police encounters.
Attempts to hush up might have succeeded this time again but for the statement of an injured child with a gunshot wound who told media that the deceased included his parents, a teenage sister and his father’s friend in the driving seat. The boy’s video clip sent shock waves throughout the country. The PM ordered the formation of a JIT.
The CTD has over the last three days continued to change its statements about what actually happened. It was first four suspects killed in an encounter, the shooting being a daring attempt by the law enforcers to rescue kidnapped children from their captors. Then it changed into some dangerous terrorists with links to Daesh travelling in the car when intercepted by the police. The CTD team was fired upon and they had to neutralise the terrorists. Suicide jackets, eight hand grenades, two pistols and bullets were recovered from the terrorists’ car. Nobody speaks about the alleged recoveries or firing by terrorists any more.
According to the latest JIT version three out of the four killed were innocent while the man in the driving seat had relations with Daesh. When there was no firing from the car why was the man in the driving seat killed? Even if he was a terrorist, it is for the court and not the police to sentence him.
