Criminals under custody can easily escape after killing their escorts
KARACHI: Police systems are designed to control and prevent crimes. A dysfunctional system, on the contrary, could do just the opposite. Consider the following incident that took place in Karachi on September 30.
Three policemen were driving two suspected criminals back to the Korangi Police Station after a court hearing. The suspects had been taken to the court for charges of killing a policeman on September 20. On their way back to the police station, the two suspected criminals overpowered the police, killing one and critically wounding the other. Both the suspected criminals managed to escape and only one of them has been apprehended so far.
The police and the under-custody accuse were travelling in a small private car. They were neither handcuffed nor restrained. The policeman who was driving the car claimed this to be his personal vehicle. A quick verification from the Excise and Taxation website, however, suggests that the car’s licence plate is registered to someone else. The motor vehicle tax had not been paid for this car for the last one year. The weapon used for killing and wounding the two policemen belonged to the same policeman who was at the steering wheel.
In a completely dysfunctional system, it is no surprise that the criminals under custody can easily escape after killing their escorts. Why were the suspected criminals being carried in a private car instead of a prisoner transport vehicle? Why were they not handcuffed? Did the criminals snatch the police officer’s official pistol or was it passed on to them? How come the policeman claimed the car as his property while the records show a different ownership?
Nine police mobiles and scores of policemen escort the family members of the head of a political party in Karachi. In contrast, the killers of our policemen are carried unchained in small personal cars. Why is the police reluctant to reform a system that acts like a death-trap for 80-100 policemen in Karachi every year? The Sindh government ought to be held responsible for criminal negligence on its part — and for not permitting the police to be independent of politics and politicians.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, October 4th, 2016.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
