Police encounters up 30% in a year

LAHORE:

A 30 per cent surge in police encounters has been recorded in Punjab during the ongoing year. Over 260 encounters were reported throughout the province during the first eight months of the year.

The record shows an increase of more than 30 per cent in the number of police encounters as compared to last year when less than 200 incidents were reported in the corresponding period.

Over 50 cases of police encounter have been reported in Lahore this year. There have been periods when an encounter was reported in the city almost daily.

An example is the last week of June when five police encounters were reported in the provincial capital.

The details of all the encounters divulged by the police were almost similar.

Among five encounters reported in last five days of June, the first one took place on June 26, in which a suspected robber was injured.

Reportedly, the Samanabad police station SHO had set up a picket along with a team that signalled two motorcyclists appearing suspicious to stop. However, instead of complying with the orders, the suspects dropped their bike and ran into Doongi Ground. As the police chased them, they resorted to firing. An exchange of fire continued for some time, leaving injured one of the suspects, Jibran Shah alias Ali Sher, while his accomplice fled from the scene.

The police claimed to have recovered from the suspects a motorcycle that had been snatched from a citizen.

On June 28, the police announced that they were escorting suspected robber Abu Huraira for identification when his accomplices resorted to firing near the LOS Drain, leading to crossfire that left him injured. The suspect had been captured a day earlier, after a shopkeeper, Ghulam Ali, was shot and injured during a botched robbery attempt in Samanabad. Reportedly, two suspected robbers had barged into the shop and looted the shopkeeper at gunpoint. As the suspects were fleeing, people present nearby captured one of them and handed him over to the police.

The third encounter of the week was reported on June 31 in the Barki area, where three suspicious motorcyclists reportdly were signalled to stop by a police team but they ran into fields while firing.

The police said they had arrested two suspected robbers, Ali Raza and Zain, while the third, identified as Abdul Razzaq alias Baba, was injured but he managed to flee. Their motorbike was found to have been snatched from Hadiara.

On July 1, two suspected robbers were killed in Mangamandi by Saddar CIA police. Reportedly, a police team was escorting suspect Pervaiz alias Paijoo Odh to arrest his accomplices when they allegedly opened fire at the personnel near Mangamandi Bypass. Peraiz and his accomplice Abbass were injured during the exchange of fire. They were shifted to a nearby hospital but they could not survive.

The deceased reportedly were involved in dacoity, abduction and rape cases and had also murdered cops in Mangamandi and Sundar.

The same day, another encounter was reported from Ghalib Market. Reportedly, the area SHO had set up a picket near LDA Park and signalled to stop two motorcyclists, but they resorted to firing. Both the suspects, Waseem and Sajjad, were injured. Police said they had a history of being involved in crimes.

Punjab Police officials have often faced allegations of extra-judicial killing and executing innocent people under the garb of eliminating hardcore criminals.

The force had invited wrath at the national and international levels over killing of citizens in fake encounters in the Sabzazar area in the 1990s and Sahiwal in 2019.

A law enforcement expert asserted that the tendency for such tactics emanated from gaps in the criminal justice system causing failure to nail criminals.

Some officials also claim while speaking on the condition of anonymity that hardcore criminals resort to heinous crimes more blatantly after escaping punishment through the legal process.

They say the police are blamed for a rise in crime in their jurisdiction.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2022.