THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL

20 MARCH 1999

POLICE KILLINGS

The protests which followed the recent killings of three people in Lahore in a police encounter tell a chilling tale. Few doubt that the men shot were almost certainly involved in crime. Their reputations in their own localities were far from being untarnished. Yet the fact that over a hundred people chose to stage an angry demonstration as they were being buried is indicative of the simmering anger among the people against the Punjab police, and perhaps the police force in all other provinces of the country as well.

These feelings have also been repeatedly expressed at the PM's weekly public meetings as well as at other available forums. It is also true the sentiments and feelings are incensed not only due to the encounters, but also because of the widespread public perceptions of corruption, harassment and even assassinations in exchange for money carried out by the police force. The fact that an institution meant to serve the interests of the people is widely seen by the public as doing just the opposite is a serious situation, requiring urgent attention.

But while the working of the police as a whole will need to be addressed stage by stage, the ongoing series of encounters in the province can no longer be cavalierly ignored. They in fact indicate that the police has been given a license to kill - bypassing the entire process of justice as laid down by law. It is true this process may at times operate painfully slowly and contain within it many flaws, but permitting an agency intended, above all, to uphold the law to blatantly violate it amounts to encouraging anarchy to prevail in place of order.

This is all the more true as the spate of killings seem also to have promoted among lower-level officers a mentality which permits them to murder virtually at will. Even those guilty of the most minor offences should take the chance of a gun deal with the police indicted on minor offences should take the chance of a gun deal with the police, with its obviously serious consequences, only highlights the fear in their minds that once in police custody for whatever reason, anything, absolutely anything, could happen to them, including death. The gunfight therefore becomes a worthwhile option.

Still more alarming are the reports of individual police officers being hired to in fact carry out killings, making them nothing more than paid assassins or mercenaries. In too many cases, it seems, such men are allowed to escape without facing punishment.

The culture must end. Allowing it to continue will mean only a further criminalisation of the police force and an open message to all within society that justice can be flouted by those who possess the power to do so. To avert such a situation there is a dire need to reassess the conduct and operation of the Punjab police, to examine the levels of brutality within it and to find ways in which it can work to resolve the issues of the people rather than compounding the problems they face.