When state encourages ‘fake encounters’

It was in 1993 when during a meeting held at a famous house in Clifton (not Bilawal House), chaired by former interior minister retired Lt-Gen Naseerullah Babar and attended by senior officials of police and intelligence agencies, a decision was taken to kill militants extra judicially. The only person who opposed the policy was ex-IGP Mr Afzal Shigri who paid the price and was transferred. It seems as this policy has not yet been abandoned.

Due to the hue and cry on social media, the killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud became a national issue and led to the case against well-known encounter specialist Rao Anwar.

The inside story of the making of Rao Anwar and others revealed that they always enjoyed official backing from both political and non-political forces.

The 1993 policy was followed by successive governments in the follow-up operations, particularly in Karachi.

Unimpeachable sources aware of those developments revealed that Rao Anwar and dozens of other well-known police officers were a product of the said policy. Many police officers too were killed in the last two decades by militants. Departmental inquiries in either cases looked like a patch work, bearing no results.

When I contacted Shigri, he confirmed that he opposed extrajudicial killings and told Babar that he can't be a party. "It has always been my considered opinion even when I was A SP in Peshawar,” he said.

Babar was of the view that when terrorists killed innocent people, they should also be killed. “In extraordinary situation the world over, you adopt such policies,” a source quoting him said.

Shigri did not agree and insisted on speedy trial and improved criminal justice system. Some other officers suggested that in case any police officer killed any innocent person he should face murder trial and punished.

Shigri was later replaced and transferred from Sindh as he did not endorse the policy.

Sources say following this policy, a strong message was communicated to the militant wings and their political faces that if they killed one police officer, two of their militants in custody would be killed in similar fashion. A team of police officers were also constituted for the job.

Those who defended extrajudicial killings were of the view that it produced positive results in Karachi, but admitted that many innocent political workers were also killed.

One of the main reasons why extrajudicial killings became order of the day since 1993 was the lust to get reward money. It would be worth finding how the reward went to different police officers for such encounters in the last so many years.

Since Chief Justice Saqib Nisar has taken suo motu notice into Naqeebullah case, he should also seek record of hundreds of such encounters, at least those taking place during the ongoing Karachi operation.

Retired Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid during his tenure Sindh High Court chief justice passed a number of rulings on fake encounters and at times even asked the government not to post such officers in Sindh again, but his rulings were ignored.

The 1993 policy produced encounter specialists like Rao Anwar, Bahadur Ali, Chaudhry Aslam, Fahim Commando, Irfan Bahadur, Sarwar Commando and dozens of others. They were not only rewarded with huge prize money and promotion but even branded as national heroes.

Babar's operation be regarded as among the best as it led to the killing of many alleged MQM militants who had become terror in the city. But when he decided to open the account of other militant groups like PPP-SB, Lyari gang and others, he was asked to go slow.

In the official list, the groups which had militant wings also included names of Sindhi nationalists, Jamaat-e-Islami's student wing and ANP beside sectarian and global terror networks.

Sources say at one point, Babar decided to disarm Mir Murtaza Bhutto's guards and PPP-SB, including those who had the past record of Al-Zulfiqar. He decided to raid 70 Clifton after an intelligence report suggested presence of a huge quantity of arms. But he was stopped.

The incident of Murtaza Bhutto's fake encounter on Sept 20, 1996 was the ultimate fallout of extrajudicial killings. What is the most amazing part was the final conclusion of the case. All the police officers who faced trial were acquitted and at the same time all alleged militants of PPP-SB against whom a case was registered for firing on police during the encounter were also acquitted.

During the last 27 years, police have been involved in hundreds of encounters, some could be genuine but others fake. Besides, fingers had been pointed at other law enforcement agencies as well.

In many cases, the Pakistan Penal Code clause of self defence has been often used, if one go through departmental inquires and the police officers involved in encounters often get the benefit of doubt.

One senior police officer, who had been involved in many investigations, believe if an independent and thorough investigation is conducted into each encounter and the responsible are put on trial in case it turns out to be fake, it could improve the situation and overcome fake encounters.

Secondly, he says the concept of head money or reward should be reviewed. He says the idea of reward for seeking information about any suspect or terrorist is one thing, but giving reward for any arrest should be linked to the final conviction.

He also suggested that the judiciary, particularly ATCs, instead of dealing with 50 or 60 cases in a day, should focus on eight to ten and dispose of these within 15 days. Either side should not be given more than one or two adjournments, particularly in cases of terrorism.

“In 1992 when the Tando Bahawal incident surfaced in which nine innocent villagers were killed in a fake encounter, late Gen Asif Nawaz ordered Maj Arshad's court martial and he was hanged," he said.

Unfortunately, it was a rare example and there has been hardly a case during the last two decades in which the policy of fake encounters was discouraged, he said, adding that judiciary also had a crucial role.

In many cases, police or law enforcement agencies do not even had any criminal record of the suspects they killed and the term used in such cases is 'accomplice' or member of this gang or the other.

If in the 1980s, every second PPP worker and leader became member of Al-Zulfiqar, in the 1990s, every second MQM leader and worker became MQM militant. In post-9/11 world, every second Afghan or Arab became Taliban or al-Qaeda. Same pattern has been followed in the cases of Baloch or Sindhi nationalists.

Many experts who dealt with such operations considered this policy as flawed and proposed a serious review, if we really want to prevent Naqeebullah Mehsud-like incident. Every Mehsud is not a terrorist.

Irrespective of the merit of the Naqeebullah Mehsud case, it is the time for a serious review of giving clean chit to fake encounters. It is the time to differentiate between a target killer and an extrajudicial killer, which could only possible if we stop fake encounters.

The writer is a senior columnist and analyst of GEO, The News and Jang.

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO