SC to grill Punjab police on staged encounters

Apex court directs Lahore sessions judge to hold an inquiry into the matter.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday summoned Punjab police officials on December 3 for their alleged involvement in two fake encounters along with the records of the incidents.

The order was passed by a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry while hearing a suo motu case of the alleged fake police encounters in Lahore’s EME Colony and in Gujranwala City.

Justice Chaudhry also directed Lahore’s sessions judge to conduct a judicial inquiry into the encounters and submit a report at the next date of hearing.

Saeed Yousaf, Assistant Advocate General Punjab (AAG), informed the bench that a judicial magistrate was conducting an inquiry into the EME Colony police encounter. He also clarified that the second incident did not take place in Gujranwala but in Sialkot on Daska Road and that the local police were investigating the matter.

According to the Superintendent Police (SP) Lahore, two robbers broke into the house of an army major in the EME Colony and murdered him. They also took the whole family hostage at gunpoint but luckily one woman managed to slip out to report the incident to the police.

Police arrived at the scene and arrested one of the robbers standing guard outside the house. Later the police entered the house along with the arrested robber for negotiations with his accomplices but in an exchange of fire all the three burglars were killed.

Justice Chaudhry asked the SP about his presence at the crime scene when the alleged encounter took place. And he submitted that he was not in charge when the incident took place. However, he added that he had watched video reports of the incident.

“Then the officers who had conducted the encounter must appear before the court,” the chief justice observed.

AAG Yousaf submitted that the police were investigating. On this the chief justice remarked that it was a big incident and a judicial magistrate will investigate it.

“The men were arrested outside the house and then taken inside where they were murdered in a fake encounter. It’s a big tragedy,” Justice Tariq Pervez observed.

Later the court while adjourning the case till December 8, directed the sessions judge Lahore to investigate the matter and summoned the police officials involved in the fake encounters.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2010.