Situationer: Resorting to ‘encounters’: are Sindh police losing faith in legal system?

WHILE the killing of suspected criminals in alleged encounters is not a new phenomenon, it is rare in Karachi for arrested suspects to be brought to raids to arrest their accomplices and for them to end up dead “by firing from their own accomplices”. Thursday’s killing of three suspects, who were arrested recently for murdering a doctor during a robbery in Clifton, in a “shoot-out” between police and their alleged accomplices gives rise to the impression that Sindh police are now gradually moving towards the Punjab Crime Control Department’s (CCD) style of “dispensing justice”, which has been quite infamous for such encounters.

Dawn reached out to several top officials for comments, but they declined to go on record. However, in background conversations, they said this was partly due to “frustration with the criminal justice system” and partly to prevent “the entry of criminals from Punjab” into Sindh, particularly Karachi.

They said several suspects had fled the CCD operations in Lahore and came to Karachi, where they were committing heinous crimes.

They said that the police have adopted a “zero tolerance” policy against crime and criminals as proclaimed offenders and habitual criminals usually get bail and return to the streets to resume committing crimes.

As Punjab police are widely associated with alleged killings of held suspects, recent incidents in Karachi point to where Sindh police are taking their lead from

Besides, the officials said that it had been noticed that several criminals had fled Punjab and had come to Karachi because of perceived proactive policing in Punjab and had started committing crimes in the city.

In order to deter criminals of Punjab from taking shelter in Karachi, pro-active policing has been enhanced, the sources said.

Citing such cases, they said that recently a suspect had been arrested in the city who was wanted in 140 cases in different parts of Punjab. Similarly, a gang from Punjab had been busted in Karachi after they had looted Rs6.5 million in Saddar.

Moreover, criminals had demanded protection money from a famous sweet shop in Ittehad Town and also carried out firing on the shop for extortion. It transpired during the investigation that this gang of criminals belonged to Rawalpindi. They had come to Karachi to carry out crimes after running away from actions of the CCD in Punjab.

“We are moving towards a hard state by bringing changes to police’s attitudes and policies to take forcible action against crime and criminals,” observed South DIG Syed Asad Raza, without elaborating.

Another senior official said, “encounters” make a “difference” as a particular type of criminals were involved in violent crimes and these crimes could only be controlled through “elimination” of such hardened criminals.

‘Risk of collateral damage’

However, the official warned that there is always a risk of “collateral damage” as recently happened in Chakwal in Punjab where the CCD action against criminals led to killing of an innocent girl.

However, an official of the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), who wished not to be named, said that a long-lasting solution lies in “improving criminal justice system”.

He said that recently the CPLC and the police jointly arrested two suspected extortionists red-handed when they were extracting Rs1 million protection money from a trader.

The CPLC officials were thinking to issue a press release to the media as the arrest was not properly covered by the media, but to their utter surprise, they came to know that both the accused had already been released on bail.

The CPLC official added that it should be investigated by the authorities whether it was a “faulty investigation” by investigators that helped the extortionists get bail. Otherwise, the authorities concerned should take up this issue with the chief justice of Sindh High Court.

CCD’s massive apparatus

A senior police official from Punjab told Dawn that the CCD is part of Punjab police and is not alone in controlling crime. “There are other factors as well that have contributed to crime control efforts in the province.”

The official added that the introduction of technology, safe cities project, provision of modern gadgets, establishment of a “state-of-the-art” forensic lab, crime scene units equipped with “European-like” vehicles for collecting evidence, fingerprinting, DNA testing, etc, were among the factors whose combined impact had contributed to reducing crime by 80 per cent in Punjab.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2026