Encountering 'encounters'

Shoot without sight. Shoot not till they die, but till your bullets finish. Shoot one and shoot all. These seem to be the SOPs or standard operating procedures for Police and its various departments across the country. The Sahiwal tragedy has again highlighted a fact that we have debated for 7 decades that police has become a security threat to the ordinary citizens of Pakistan. Articles over articles have been written, debates have been conducted but nothing seems to have changed. The Police "Force" continues to use excessive force on the helpless, unconnected, uninformed, unprivileged, unprotected, uninfluential people of the country.
More dangerous than murder is legalized murder. Murders are abhorred, illegal, activities that create an immediate response against it from state and society. The murderers are caught, punished and socially castrated. The problem with legal murders are that firstly they are not classified as murders; they are classified as public safety squads who for the larger good of the people are eliminating a few terrorists. Such justifications are almost irrefutable because they are levied at people who have or have the potential of killing others. Under this explanation legal deviations, SOP eliminations, and constitutional digressions are all overlooked. Horrifically, illegal murder becomes legal and understandable.
The Sahiwal incident is a mental shock and an emotional stunner. The random shooting spree on a car which according to intelligence reports belonged to an ex-terrorist is just barbaric. A family of four children going to attend a marriage is ruthlessly gunned down unprovoked and unarmed. The husband and wife die and so does a thirteen-year-old, while three children under ten years age sit behind see their loved ones being mowed down in horror and helplessness. What could be more devastating to see, hear, feel than the agony of your family going through a bloody attack for no plausible reason. No amount of explanations and justifications by the government or state can absolve them of this emotional catastrophe.
This is not the first incident of its kind but let us hope this is the last as without the safety of people at large development is just a euphemism for destruction. The data on this "safe and sound" legal murder is horrific. According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 3,345 people have been killed in police encounters from January 2014 to May 2018. Twenty three women and 12 minors have also been killed in these police encounters. Sindh is on top of the list in killing maximum people in police 'encounters' from January 2014 to May 2018. During this period, the Sindh Police has killed 1,592 people in 'encounters'. Punjab is second where 1,556 victims were killed in 1,036 police 'encounters. The number of police encounters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were very low as compared to Sindh and Punjab. KP has the lowest killing as data says 71 victims were killed in 54 different cases of police 'encounters' from January 2014 to May 2018.
Assuming that all encounters are fake is also incorrect. However stories that are leaked and come out in the media constantly show an amazing lack of system, professionalism and human instincts. The use of police "Force" has been used to politically project or reject people and performance. A former additional IG Sarmad Saeed Khan has talked on how these encounters are abused for some other intent than eliminating criminals. He said police encounters had the backing of the government or senior police officers many times but not every time. There were few specific police officers like Abid Boxer who performed this "task". "They initially do it as a goodwill gesture fearing the accused cannot be punished by the court like the encounter of Malik Ishaq or Riaz Basra. Later, they start killing low-profile criminals to project their performance. Corruption has also penetrated the process, he remarked. "The encounter specialists start taking money from the opponents of an accused. At another stage, they may take money from both parties; accused as well his opponents." With this repute, they are then used by politicians to settle scores under fake encounters.
The Sahiwal incident is a reflection of three failures. Firstly, the systemic failure of intelligence and counter-terrorism coordination. How was it possible that those who sent information to the counter-terrorism department about a car did not know that there were innocent people sitting in it. Secondly, it was an operational failure. Why was that car not simply stopped by puncturing its tyres and letting people come out for proper investigation rather than a ruthless blood bath given to innocent children and parents. Thirdly, it was a political failure where the political leadership did not wait for the JIT report before passing judgements that later proved embarrassing to the government and hurtful to the affected families.
The real failure for 7 decades has been of the political intent to reform this police. A 150-year-old system of police developed in 1861 by the British has been reverently preserved by government after government. KP changed the system and the results are there to see. What the new government must to is to have an immediate short-term and long term strategy. The short-term measure is to identify all gaps that occurred while carrying out the operation and on an emergency basis devise a plan of ensuring that these mistakes do not recur. This will involve a very thorough investigation of the flow and authenticity of the information and operation and people responsible for it. The JIT has asked for more time and the opposition has requested that more experts should be added to it. Both suggestions are valid and the end report should be so valid and detailed that it should identify all loopholes that need immediate plugging and areas which need structural and systemic reforms.
However, the real challenge is reforms. These reforms will require not only a mindset change in the police department but in the political leadership, in the public and in the media as well. The basic reform is to change the concept from Police "Force" to Police "Service". The main purpose of a police official is to serve the people of Pakistan, not to harass them, to provoke them, to threaten them, to kill them without a crime. This means a legislative change that ensures cleansing of police from the political insurgents. IG Abbas Khan's report on police in 1992 mentioned that the then government inducted over 20000 people in police who had criminal records. This also means that training has to be not just technical but behavioural, ethical and psychological. This also means that performance appraisal and promotions have to be based on performance and attitude. This is a tall order but shorter goals will have shorter impacts. We owe it to the sad, traumatized, devastated eyes of the children of the Sahiwal tragedy to not let any child become a victim of a "force" that for far too long has become a source of terror rather than a source of security.
The writer can be reached at [email protected].