In cold blood

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, even 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 extra-judicially 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 post-colonial 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 employed 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 extra-judicially 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 up to 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, the 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.
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