Unsurprisingly the upsurge in crime in Punjab does not only result in an increase in the incarcerated population but also an added pressure on the police to enforce the writ of the state, which often turns them into a trigger-happy force.
Already maligned for being a department that has failed to prevent extra-judicial killings, the Punjab Police’s encounter tally remained in the hundreds during the past year - a consistent trend for the second year running.
As per data obtained by The Express Tribune for the past five years, from 2018 to 2022, the Punjab Police was involved in as many as 544 police encounters, in which 612 accused involved in various crimes were killed. A breakdown of the data shows that the police force conducted 58 encounters in the province during 2018, which increased to 72 in 2019. At the conclusion of the year 2020, encounters saw a mammoth 96% increase as 141 accused were killed. This number increased to 160 in 2021 and then saw a slight dip in 2022 as 154 accused were killed - however, it is pertinent to mention that from 2018 to 2022 there was a 166% increase in police encounters.
Commenting on the increase, former inspector general (IG) of the Punjab Police, Shaukat Javed, opined that the uptick in encounters definitely puts a question mark on the department. “However, the government has to be held accountable as well due to its failure to formulate an effective policy to curb crime. Moreover, often the police are left to fend for themselves when they are just doing their job,” added Javed.
Abdullah Malik, who heads a human rights organisation in Lahore, disagrees with Javed’s defence of the police. “The police doing their job does not mean they have a licence to kill,” retorted Malik, adding that if the accused are killed in self-defence then the department should not shy away from requests for inquiries. “However, in my experience, every time a request for inquiry is filed for an encounter, the police either do a half-hearted job at conducting it or disregard the request.”
Malik’s assessment has backing in the data obtained by The Express Tribune, as out of the 154 encounters in 2022, there are ongoing judicial inquiries in 10 cases and ongoing departmental inquiries in 44 cases; with no timeline on when they will be completed. The Express Tribune also spoke to former additional IG for investigations, Muhammad Azam Joya, about the Punjab Police’s reputation as a trigger-happy force, who whilst encouraging the ongoing inquiries into potentially fake encounters, like Javed, defended the police. “The rate of increase in encounters is proportional to the increase in crime,” said Joya, adding that the police are just trying to curb the crime rate.
When pointed out that Punjab’s crime rate had actually increased by 40% in the past five years as per police records, Joya shifted the onus on lawmakers and courts. “We desperately need legislation to punish criminals in record time,” he remarked while talking to The Express Tribune.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2023.
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