Police flogged three persons suspected of burglary in Chiniot at a public place. The accused were laid on the ground one by one. Two policemen grabbed their hands and feet while a uniformed officer repeatedly thrashed their bare backs with a long, thick leather strap.
While this is by no means an unfamiliar scene at a police station, the difference this time was that the incident was caught on the camera of a mobile phone by a local resident who provided the pictures to a private TV channel which screened them again and again. This jolted the provincial administration into action. The provincial police chief admitted that the thrashing of suspects was illegal and ordered the arrest of four police officials. The provincial law minister also condemned the incident and promised that those arrested would be tried in a court.
Within hours, another TV network telecast scenes of a similar incident in Hafizabad district, showing five villagers being tortured by policemen outside a rural police station. The channel showed three accused lying on the ground outside the station. One by one, a policeman held their legs while another flogged their backsides. Taking notice of the second incident, the Punjab chief minister ordered the officials concerned to submit a report within two hours.
Meanwhile, another TV channel broadcast footage showing another suspect being hung upside down at a Thana or police station. Yet another TV channel showed a young man being tortured at a police station in Lahore. Although, police all over the country resort to torture of suspects as a matter of routine, the Punjab police department is more than notorious in this respect.
Torture is widely considered to be the most efficient way of reaching the bottom of complicated crimes in the shortest possible period. Cases have been reported where suspects have even died in police custody due to torture. There have also been reports of the accused trying to commit suicide in police custody, or jumping from the second floor of the police station in desperation with a view to avoiding torture, suffering serious injuries in the process.
In case of the accused persons absconding, the common method employed by the police is to conveniently 'associate' their nearest relatives with the investigation. This implies keeping them in virtual custody at the police station without fulfilling legal requirements. The relatives are often released only after police have extracted bribes from them.
While it is legally binding on the police to register a First Information Report (FIR) when approached by a complainant, procrastination continues unless prodded by higher authorities or till the complainant agrees to grease the concerned police official's palm. When the crime graph suddenly starts rising in a province and the police are directed to bring it down, campaigns are launched to nab the criminals. Fake police encounters are often resorted to as these are considered to be short-cuts to the reduction of crime.
Extra-judicial killings take place particularly when the police are convinced of the involvement of an accused in a heinous crime but is not willing to go through the tedium of gathering evidence sufficient enough for a court to sentence him. Police encounters are also regarded as the quickest way of administering justice and driving the fear of God into potential criminals.
Ratings by international and domestic evaluators put police high on the list of the most corrupt government departments. While corruption has no doubt contributed to the notorious Thana culture, there are serious weaknesses in the system that is behind the phenomenon.
Despite separation between the investigation and prosecution branches, police stations remain ill equipped to resolve minor disputes that finally land in the courts, adding to their workload and contributing to delay in justice. There being no police academies to provide training especially to middle and lower ranking officers in modern investigation methods, police stations are forced to rely on primitive techniques of investigation not in consonance with human rights.
Even if an academy of the sort had existed it would have been of little use in the absence of the modern albeit costly means of crime investigation at police stations. Resolve shown by any of the chief ministers off and on to rid his respective province of the Thana culture would lead to nowhere as is amply proved by the unending incidents of torture. What is needed is a thoroughgoing reform of the system that must include the provision of necessary training and allocation of resources to the police force. Unless this is done, it would be unrealistic to expect any change in conditions prevailing at the police stations.