Report to SHC: Police disputes target killing figures

Half of people were murdered for sectarian, political or personal reasons, says force.

KARACHI:

In an apparent bid to deflect some of the heat, the police has told the chief justice of the Sindh High Court that only 16 people have been killed in 24 hours and only half of them were targeted – the rest were murdered for other reasons.

The report that was submitted to the Registrar’s office on Saturday evening appears to contradict the media’s total of 33 deaths since Tuesday. The police have pegged half of the killings to sectarian, ethnic and personal vendettas.

The chief justice took notice of the violence and asked the police to come up with an explanation for the sudden spike in bloodshed. SHC CJ Musheer Alam and Registrar Abdul Rasool Memon are, however, in Peshawar, which is why the DIG submitted the report to their office, sources said.

In its report, the police also claimed to have arrested seven suspects and found weapons on them. The Rangers are conducting operations separately, it added. However, it appears that they have not weighed in on the information provided to the court. The report contradicts statistics presented in the media and by NGOs putting the figure for the first quarter at 396. Only 47 people were targeted in these three months, the police report said. The others were victims of sectarian strife, friction between political parties and personal enmity.

The police did add, however, that in a new facet to the violence, three policemen were killed in 24 hours.

It was not immediately clear if the SHC CJ had asked for the report as part of suo motu action or in his capacity as the head of a monitoring committee formed by the Supreme Court which took up the violence in the summer last year. The committee had decided to meet every Tuesday of a new month. It was supposed to review the administrative machinery’s implementation of the SC orders but has not been able to meet.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2012.