Intezar murder case

Intezar Ahmed, aged 21, was shot dead in DHA Karachi by personnel of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell in January 2018. Now an anti-terrorism court has punished seven ACLC cops for the killing. The man was killed in his prime youth. The punishments awarded to the convicts will likely prevent the police from taking human lives on the slightest suspicion. The Intezar case recalls to mind the killing of four members of a family in Sahiwal a few years ago allegedly by the police. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 3,345 persons were killed from January 2014 to May 2018 in the country in what the police claimed were encounters. These included 23 women and 12 minors. Fifty-five cops were also killed in these encounters.

These figures lead one to think why the police are in a hurry to snuff out life. The police are paid from taxpayers’ money and they are to protect people. They should inspire confidence in citizens. However, the police’s public image has suffered over the years. Possibly, one reason for the persisting police brutality might be traced to their training. So it is for police training institutes to sensitise cops on human rights. Now there are inventions and innovations that can help reduce, if not fully eradicate, police high-handedness. There are bodycams through which cops’ activities are to be constantly monitored; low intensity guns, attached to real guns, which hit but do not hurt; and skunk sprays that shower people with unbearably stinking water.

However, questions arise about the murder of the young Naqibullah in a fake police encounter by a team led by SSP Rao Anwar, also known as ‘encounter specialist’ and ‘super cop’. The officer has been convicted in the case and has been a fugitive from law for the past several years. In this context, one cannot help mention another police officer, Abid Boxer, also famous as an ‘encounter specialist.’

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2021.

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