Heart and torture

That the death of Aftab Ahmed, a coordinator for MQM leader Farooq Sattar, took place on the very day the MQM was protesting against the disappearance of its workers highlights one of the chief worries of the Rangers-led Karachi operation. As successful as the operation has been in reducing violence in the city, there is always the possibility that law-enforcement authorities – or some within them – will overstep their bounds. This is what appears to have happened in the case of Aftab. Initially, the Rangers said that he died of heart failure but soon after photographs begin to emerge on social media showing torture marks on Aftab’s body. It was only then that the Sindh Rangers director general admitted that Aftab had been tortured, but he claimed it was carried out by a few rogue officers and was not official policy. The Rangers are still also maintaining that Aftab died of a heart attack and not torture, although one can hardly be sure if the heart attack was not spurred by the torture. Political workers being picked up without charge and tortured, and even extra-judicial killings, are not exactly a novelty in our history.

Army Chief Raheel Sharif has also weighed in on the matter and called for an unbiased investigation. This is a welcome intervention but those below him need to follow through and announce an independent enquiry. If it ends up being a case of the Rangers investigating themselves, then it will certainly be seen as a whitewash. There is no reason for the Sindh government or the Rangers to oppose this if they know that incidents like the death of Aftab Ahmed are isolated cases that are unrepresentative of the operation. To retain faith in the Rangers and the operation it is essential to know and feel that law-enforcement personnel are not involved in human-right violations and killings.