Islamabad, Feb 3 (IANS) Persistent police encounter killings and the lack of transparency, probe or accountability around them in Pakistan’s Punjab province indicates criminality on part of the State, a report has stated. As of early 2025, the Crime Control Department (CCD) of Punjab Police and its political patrons have been following a tried and tested script.
Formed through an executive order after Punjab cabinet’s approval last year, the department’s powers and mandate have been made a law through the Police Order (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 to include operational and investigative police work, legal work, intelligence and data gathering through different forms of surveillance..
“An overly empowered specialised police unit, created to realise the Chief Minister’s ‘zero crime policy’, the CCD has been given a free hand to enforce zero tolerance policing. Its performance is reminiscent of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Federal Security Force, and beyond Pakistan, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Nigeria, and the Rapid Action Battalion in Bangladesh — examples of elite policing units designed to ‘eliminate’ serious and organised crime, terrorism, and other national or internal security threats, including political opposition, while significantly breaching human rights and civil liberties,” Zoha Waseem, Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick, wrote in Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn’s Prism.
It mentioned that over 400 suspected criminals were killed in more than 800 CCD encounters from January-June 2025. According to estimates by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan from October last year, over 670 individuals died in police encounters in Punjab, “a figure higher than in any other province.” The deceased included dacoits, drug dealers, gang members, child abusers, sexual harassers, etc.
A petition registered in the Lahore High Court in January has revealed that 1,100 citizens were killed in such encounters since the establishment of the CCD. It states that “fake encounters are being used as an alternative to the criminal justice system” and termed them illegal and unconstitutional. The plea in the Lahore High Court comes after several statements and judgments by the superior courts last year, during which government officials, including the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Punjab Police chiefs, were summoned and ordered to ensure that constitutional protections are followed, the piece in Dawn’s Prism detailed.
According to the law, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is required to probe deaths and torture in police custody. However, as of November last year, not a single probe has been reportedly conducted into the CCD’s reported encounter killings. Meanwhile, the department has rejected claims about staged or fake encounters.
The department’s spokesperson stated, “These criminals do not welcome us with flowers, they shoot at us the moment they see us … during these operations, if a few individuals are killed, it accounts for not even one per cent of our overall activities.” Dozens of such “few individuals” were reportedly killed in encounters by CCD personnel in the final month of 2025, shortly after a petition was registered in Lahore High Court.
“On a single day, in a ‘series of encounters’ across the province, at least 23 suspected drug dealers were killed, with at least 16 in Gujranwala alone. The figure alone should set the alarm bells ringing. Importantly, the persistence of police encounter killings — and the lack of transparency, investigations, or accountability around them — indicates criminality on the part of the state, the complacency of the ‘respectable public’, and the limits of institutional reform,” wrote Zoha Waseem.
–IANS
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