Pakistan is no stranger to incidents of police brutality but there are events that leave the entire nation shell-shocked.
Five officials of Islamabad Police’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) were arrested after they gunned down a 21-year-old boy, Usama Satti, in cold blood near Srinagar Highway, G-10 sector in the federal capital.
This incident has led the nation to question why ours is a trigger-happy police force.
Earlier today, Senate’s Human Rights Committee Chairperson Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar tweeted, “Heart goes out to the family of young Usama. Can’t imagine what his parents and loved ones must be going through. Although judicial inquiry has been ordered, will take it up in HR committee too. Use of deadly assault weapons should b the last resort. Fatal error of judgement.”
Social media trends asking for justice for Satti as well as arresting Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed started trending following the young man’s brutal killing.
In a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 2016 on police in Pakistan, the rights group noted that successive Pakistani governments have for decades failed to reform an under-resourced and under-equipped police force or hold abusive police to account.
Two years ago in January 2019, police officials killed several members of the same family in Sahiwal town on suspicion of terrorism. At that time, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan not just condemned the killings but he also promised police reforms so as to avoid torture and extrajudicial killings.
An anti-terrorism court acquitted all six personnel of the CTD who were allegedly involved in the Sahiwal incident. The Punjab government did challenge the acquittal but such is the state of justice in this country that an encounter in broad daylight in front of young children could not garner any justice for the victims’ family.
Two years ago in January 2019, police officials killed several members of the same family in Sahiwal town on suspicion of terrorism. At that time, Prime Minister Imran Khan not just condemned the killings but he also promised police reforms so as to avoid torture and extrajudicial killings. An anti-terrorism court acquitted all six personnel of the CTD police who were allegedly involved in the Sahiwal incident. The Punjab government did challenge the acquittal but such is the state of justice in this country that an encounter in broad daylight in front of young children could not garner any justice for the victims’ family.
Police reforms were one of the key promises made by PM Imran and his party, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), when they came to power in 2018. Unfortunately, we have not seen any substantive move towards the same. It is important now more than ever that the government starts walking the talk because such incidents occur due to lack of accountability. We cannot continue to live in fear of a trigger-happy police force that can kill at will without any consequences.
After police reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) by the PTI government during its last tenure, we had high hopes that the PTI’s federal government would emulate the KP Police Act, 2017 in other provinces where it is in power, especially Punjab. We hope that the government would now do so at an urgent basis.
