Police brutality

Exemplary punishment must be given to those who unlawfully pulled the trigger and killed an innocent man

In yet another example of the extreme negligence and highhandedness of the law enforcers, an innocent man was gunned down in Karachi recently while he was on his way home. The 40-year-old man was leaving a market, after having bought sweets to celebrate his promotion at work, when some policemen, wrongly suspecting him to be a robber, opened fire at him. The unfortunate man died immediately.

What makes the incident worse is the fact that the police have not accepted their fault, and are instead trying to cover up the shooting through various contradictory statements. Initially, they claimed that the man was a dacoit; next they said that the man was caught in a crossfire between a group of robbers and the police; and in the end, they insisted that he was killed by robbers during the crossfire. Perhaps, if the Sindh Police had reacted professionally and taken the family into confidence, accepted that there was negligence on their part and offered some compensation, the crowd that took to the streets in the aftermath of the incident would not have turned violent. Past incidents of the same nature also paint a dismal picture: two policemen and a civilian were accused of killing two men, the Rangers shot dead Sarfaraz Shah on camera, a taxi driver was also shot dead by paramilitary soldiers, and many more cases of the same nature. In all these cases, the families of the victims have been forced to grant pardon to the accused.

As the family mourns the death of its sole breadwinner, it is time the government sprang into action. Apart from the customary suspension of the area station house officer, exemplary punishment must be given to those who unlawfully pulled the trigger. A proper and impartial investigation must be carried out, witnesses should be given protection and evidence must be preserved so that the culprits are put behind bars and made to serve their entire sentences. Only then will law enforcers see what consequences their actions may lead to, only then will the police and Rangers act responsibly.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2014.

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