Justice by police?

legally and by any principle of justice custodial killing by police and security institutions is an indefensible act

The murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud by SSP Rao Anwar and his police party allegedly in an ‘encounter’ has brought to public light the lingering issue of justice by police. They admit to having killed young and aspiring Naqeebullah but insist it was in ‘self-defence’. They haven’t showed any record of his involvement, so far, in any terror incident or credible link with any banned terror organisation. This tragic and deplorable incident is being investigated as one of the fake “attacks” of “terrorists” on policemen on patrol. There is remarkable consistency in the narrative by the police in hundreds of similar cases that have been reported in Punjab and Sindh and in other provinces. Always, it is night-time, when suddenly ‘terrorists’ hiding and waiting for the police to pass by open fire. In every incident, it seems, the ‘terrorists’ are slain. A few policemen are shown as having been injured and hospitalised. It would be unfair to police to say that terrorists haven’t attacked police and security personnel, or that such elements don’t exist. They do operate and have been attacking our security forces and the police.

Under the garb of fighting terrorists, the police and the Counter-Terrorism Department that operate in each province have often killed suspected terrorists in similar fake encounters. There is public silence about the police and the CTD killing terrorists that have been in their custody. Morally, legally and by any principle of justice custodial killing by the police and security institutions is an indefensible act. It is cruel and borders on criminality by state institutions.

Sadly, there is public support, political inclinations and connivance of state institutions in overlooking murders by the police of persons — often young and belonging to the country’s tribal regions — accused of involvement in terrorism or affiliated with the TTP. Being in the eye of a storm, a no-holds-barred attitude has taken deep roots in the society. Even in the worst of national circumstances, good states never fight the worst enemies with questionable means. These hundreds of young men never had any protection of a universal principle — presumption of innocence. A guilt of terrorism or murder has to be proved beyond any doubt. In every state, including ours, there is a place — the court as an institution, and legal procedures to follow for the trial of all accused, the corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and members of the aristocracy, and the pedestrian terrorists. While the nobility and the powerful political class have been getting relief under deceptive and self-invented notions of national reconciliation, even talk of negotiating with the ‘terrorists’ gets one labelled as a ‘sympathiser’ of terrorism.

There are flimsy arguments advanced for the murder of ‘terrorists’, dacoits and those involved in rape and murder — heinous crimes, in police encounters. First, they are too bad a people to live; they deserve dying. Second, if the normal route of investigation — collection of evidence, legal procedures and court system — is followed, these accused would be set free, as we have poor rate of conviction. Finally, laws have inadequacies, and the court system functions under poor security conditions — judges face threats. And then there is an argument of a dangerous enemy, enormity of the task of terrorist threats, the false ideology of violence and their foreign backers. These are a hotchpotch of ideas that are more of an apology of a collapsing police, legal and judicial system than valid argument for police justice.

We need legal, judicial and often ignored social reforms to address the conditions that produce a terrorist mindset.

Tailpiece: Naqeebullah, may your soul rest in peace, and your murderers get an exemplary punishment; not in a police encounter.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2018.

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