Pakistan

Extrajudicial penalties: Sindh Rangers asked to explain misuse of power

Emergency meeting of National Assembly to take up the issue tomorrow.

Peer Muhammad June 13, 2011

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly Human Rights Committee on has called an emergency meeting on Tuesday to take up the issue of the recent killing of an unarmed boy at the hands of Sindh Rangers personnel in Karachi.

“We are very concerned about the frequent killings of innocent people at the hands of security forces’ personnel,” said the committee chairman Riaz Fatiyana, who has summoned senior officials of Rangers and Sindh police to seek explanation of their “excessive misuse of power”.

“Provision of arms does not give them [security forces’ personnel] licence to kill those they are supposed to protect,” Fatiyana remarked. He vowed to establish a new mechanism to strictly monitor paramilitary and security forces to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future.

The killing of seven protesters in Abbottabad last year by police, the recent shooting of Chechens in Kharotabad, the mob violence against two brothers in Sialkot in the presence of police, are some of the glaring examples of extra-judicial role of our forces, said Fatiyana.

The series of such incidents, he said, started in May 2010 when seven people protesting in favour of Hazara province were killed by police in Abbottabad.

“Such incidents have brought shame to the forces that have now lost the confidence of the people,” he added. Fatiyana said that a meeting to ponder similar incidents had been scheduled for June 29, but the recent gruesome killing of the teenager forced the committee to call an emergency meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (4)

Ashar | 12 years ago | Reply The rangers are supposed to guard the borders of Pakistan and save us from ossible incursions or attacks from the border. The govt is always trying to prove how porus the Durand line is yet deploys thousands of Rangers who are trained to guard the borders and shoot at sight to anyone crossing into Pakistan to metropolitan cities of Sindh only like Karachi and Hyderabad and nowhere else in the country. They are also present in every major educational institution of the city like Karachi University and medical colleges etc. The rangers should be called back from the normal city places and parks, main roads, educational institutions etc and only used for patrolling high crime areas like Lyari/Shah Faisal etc that too if and when required. The Police should be given the extra training in intellegence gathering and crime prevention instead of calling in the Rangers in regular public places and educational institutions. There have been many instances of high handedness and complete disregard of basic human and citizen rights on behalf of the Rangers and they have been involved in thousands of extra-judicial killings in the urban areas of Sindh especially of Urdu speaking youths. It is high time that the rangers are sent back to where they belong...i.e. to protect the borders of Pakistan from terrorists entring it from the West and East and also the Police should get more finding and education and technology to fight city crime and gang violence. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

jeb | 12 years ago | Reply you will be proved wrong pk

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