In cold blood
Rashed Rahman
The incident
that led to the killing of four people and injuries to two children near
Sahiwal on January 19, 2019 raises hackles as well as some reflections on and
questions about our law enforcement culture. The facts revealed by the
surviving son of the unfortunate parents killed through the point blank firing
on their car by a Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) team completely refutes
the shifting versions of the so-called ‘encounter' by CTD and police officials.
They claimed the incident was the result of an intelligence-based (but
obviously unintelligent) operation against Daesh terrorists in which the car
carrying the tragic couple, a friend, a 13-year-old daughter, were all killed
and three children survived. This shifting, ever-changing cock-and-bull story
that characterised the occupants of the car first as kidnappers, later, as an
afterthought it seems, as terrorists, was completely contradicted by the son’s
and eyewitnesses’ statements. The car stopped when signalled to, the father
pleaded with the CTD team to search the vehicle if they did not believe him
that they were not carrying any weapons or explosives, evening offering money
if they would let them go, but all to no avail.
The point blank,
unprovoked firing resulted in 13 bullets hitting the father, Khalil, four hit
the mother Nabeela, six the 13-year-old daughter Areeba and 10 riddled the
friend, Zeeshan. These alone total 33 bullets. While the CTD and police
versions have proved patently false, post facto justificatory mea culpas, the
deaths provoked massive street protests and a storm on social media. The
opposition parties lambasted not only the perpetrators, but in consonance with
the street protestors, roundly condemned and demanded the resignation of Punjab
Law Minister Raja Basharat for spinning out the CTD/police version of events,
insensitively terming the deaths of the woman and child “collateral damage” in
the language employed by the Americans in the context of drone strikes and
other attacks against terrorists.
The government,
from Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan to Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Usman Buzdar
promised a thorough investigation, punishment to any wrongdoers, state
responsibility for the surviving three children and compensation of Rs 20
million. This did little to assuage the anger throughout the land. The Joint
Investigation Team (JIT) that has become so beloved of governments in recent
years inspires little confidence as it is headed by the very police that is in
the dock.
For those
unaware, it may be necessary to point out that the CTD is a bifurcated branch
of the police charged with anti-terrorism responsibilities, while the remaining
police looks after other crimes. Both employ so-called ‘encounters’ to
extrajudicially murder terrorist suspects and alleged criminals respectively.
Thousands lose their lives every year because of this free-for-all but no one
has ever been held responsible. The police protects its own, the judiciary
remains silent, and the old thana (police
station) culture of torture and worse is alive and kicking.
PPP Chairman
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is either too young to remember or is simply scoring
political points when he says the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government
has turned Punjab into a police state. In fact, Pakistan has remained a police
state since its inception. The postcolonial police’s culture did not change
after Independence. The British colonialists chose the Irish Constabulary model
for the Subcontinent’s police in order to suppress any resistance to their
occupation. This implied the use of force freely, subject only to executive magistrates’
relative check on the use of lethal force except when considered necessary.
General Naqvi,
our local Plato, ushered in the Police Reforms 2002, gifting thereby complete
autonomy if not independence to a police force whose character had been well
established as a trigger-happy, increasingly militarised, brutal, criminal,
corrupt entity. Such a force needed control, reform to the thana culture of torture to obtain confessions, and elimination of
the growing tendency to take the law into its own hands and act as judge, jury
and executioner through so-called ‘encounters’. We are reaping the crop thus
sowed, exacerbated by the free hand given to the law enforcement agencies and
deep state to extrajudicially kill suspects, thereby avoiding the usually long
drawn and difficult process of conviction through the courts, ordinary and
special.
The first
recipients of this lawless behaviour by our law enforcers in the early years
and upto the 1980s were Leftists and progressives of all hues. They suffered
arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and much worse through these decades.
With the decline of the Left in the 1980s, and the incremental emergence of
terrorism on our soil because of the misplaced use of religious fanatics as
proxy warriors in the region, the police, CTD and the deep state have virtual
carte blanche to act against and even use lethal force to eliminate suspected
terrorists and alleged criminals without recourse to the law, courts, or due
process. The Sahiwal tragedy is the bitter fruit of these trends.
Pakistan
currently presents a sorry picture. A selected government allegedly imposed
through a rigged election is all at sea, particularly on its handling of the
economy. The government’s day-to-day functioning is reportedly micro-managed
through regular ‘tutorials’ by the powers-that-be. ‘Peace’ initiatives, west
and east, reflect the current difficulties the country has landed itself in
through past adventurism in so-called jihad abroad and at home. But their
outcome is clouded by the neighbours’ and world’s suspicions about our
intentions, based on past experience. Pakistan stands relatively isolated in a
world more connected than ever before in history. The few friends we are relying
on such as Saudi Arabia, UAE and China can only help so far and no further.
In the times we
are living through, which may be characterised as The Age of Distraction, Imran
Khan and the PTI represent the acme of using issues such as corruption, alleged
or actual, to divert focus from the country’s real and critical issues begging
for departures from the past and hewing fresh paths to stability and
prosperity. Their performance in office so far indicates that they are clueless
about the real problems and their solutions. That seems to point, miracles
aside, towards a disaster of immense proportions looming on the dark,
threatening horizon.
We all hope I am
wrong, but until proof to the contrary emerges, best to keep our powder dry and
our counsel fresh.
rashed-rahman.blogspot.com
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