Another case of police brutality

Dr Deepak Raj has been left paralysed and an amputee after a reportedly staged encounter by the Sindh police

The Sindh police’s inclination towards needless violence is well known and now we have the latest example of this phenomenon. It ties in with the case of a psychiatrist, Dr Deepak Raj, who has been left paralysed and an amputee after a reportedly staged encounter by the Sindh police in April 2015. Mistaking him for a wanted criminal, the police opened fire at him without giving him the chance to prove his identity first and then took him into custody. The brutality faced by Dr Raj at that point is unspeakable. Without being accorded the right to go through any proper legal process, he was shot 12 times and neglected for several hours, according to his wife, before he was taken in for medical treatment. This behaviour by the Sindh police typifies their ruthless attitude, proclivity towards extrajudicial beatings and killings, and torture practices.

As if this wasn’t enough, the police now have the audacity to refuse to take any blame for Dr Raj’s plight, going as far as to producing a background story in a bid to protect the police officers involved. The reason for the lack of accountability for such practices is the politicisation of the police forces all over the country. As has been identified countless times in these columns, our police also lack training in the basic principle that is their primary responsibility — protecting lives in the name of justice, not taking them ad hoc. Additionally, the scourge of corruption that pervades all departments across Pakistan does not help matters either. To date, there has been no plausible explanation given as to why Dr Raj was shot 12 times. He still lies handcuffed to a hospital bed as a hemiplegic and an amputee. There is an obvious failure of the state’s recordkeeping process wherein Dr Raj’s identity still has not been confirmed and the police maintain he is affiliated with a wanted criminal. The provincial home ministry must act swiftly and hold the culpable to account and provide justice to Dr Raj.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2016.

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