The anecdote of the boiling frog springs to mind. The story goes that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out. However, if it is placed in water that is heated slowly, it will not perceive danger until it is boiled alive.
Citizens of Pakistan suffer from this predicament today. Rather than water, they are being fried in a vat of oil, heated slowly with the help of dictators and dynasts overseeing decades of cruelty and impunity from men in uniform that is now at boiling point. Not having re-engineered a colonial criminal justice system to fit the needs of a modern democracy, citizens are now being “fried” by law enforcement agents on a rampage.
The formation of the Apex Committee in Sindh Province, ushering increased presence of the Military and the Pakistan Rangers, has made the terms “half-fry” and “full-fry” common in the ranks of the police and other law enforcement agencies. The Apex Committee was formed to control serious crimes like terrorism, abduction, extortion, and target killings. And, the result has been a tremendous upsurge in extrajudicial killings.
The use of the term “full-fry” to indicate extrajudicial killings showcases how common and open this outrageous practice by law enforcement officials has become. Judges and murderers all rolled into one, extrajudicial killers in uniform, have been using the pseudonyms of ‘half-fry’ and ‘full-fry’ to indicate the condition of a suspect.
The term half fry is colloquial for maiming a person for life. For example, if officers are convinced arrested suspects are involved in crimes they will be shot in the leg to render them disabled before they are sent to jail. This practice of maiming suspects gained notoriety during the tenure of former SSP Farid Jan Sarhandi of Hyderabad. The term “full-fry” on the other hand is used when the person is extrajudicially murdered.
The Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Sindh, Sanaullah Abbasi, upon being asked about the legality of the “half-fry full-fry” formula in a press briefing this year, said he was confident that society had come to accept the “formula”. The “Half-fry and “full-fry” terms are used far more by the police in the interior parts of Sindh Province. These are used as code words for extrajudicial killings or for injuring a suspect to disabled him.
The Mr. Faqeer Saleem, a Sindh Express columnist has noted that during the first six months of 2015, about 26 persons have been “full fried”, whereas 120 persons have been “half fried”. Mr. Imdad Soomro, a correspondent of The News has stated that in the last six months 118 suspects have been killed in fake encounters and more than 200 have become handicapped by the police as a result of the police drive of half-fry and full-fry.
The Express Tribune, a national English daily, has, on 21 May 2015, carried an article with details of a horrifying case of police excess in which a Hindu psychiatrist, Dr. Deepak Raj, has been “half-fried”. Dr. Raj was shot 15 times— 12 bullets to his left leg, two to his right leg, and a single shot to his right arm. His left leg has been amputated while his other leg and arm is also in bad shape. Dr. Raj was grilled by the police in relation to Hyderabad police being given the task of arresting or killing a notorious robber, Shareef Panhwar, who has a bounty of Rupees 2.5 million on his head. Dr. Raj shares resemblance with this hardened criminal.
According to The Express Tribune, on April 10, policemen in plainclothes raided a teashop in Hyderabad’s Kali Morri area as Dr. Raj was sitting there. “I had to meet some relatives there and I just stayed for a cup of tea”, the article quotes Dr. Raj as saying. The policemen caught hold of him at the shop and shot at his legs, he recalled, adding that they kept calling him Shareef Panhwar. “They wanted me to say that I am Shareef Panhwar. I cried and told them that I am not even a Muslim and that my name is Deepak”, recalled Dr. Raj in the article. Dr. Raj went on to tell told the correspondent: “they called me half fried, it would have been better that they had full fried me”.
The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Irfan Baloch confirmed the man has been identified as Deepak but he insisted that the encounter was genuine. The police killed two of his aides and injured one, while two others escaped, he told The Express Tribune.
In a press briefing on 7 March 2015 that was recorded by Dawn newspaper, the Deputy Inspector General of Sindh, Sanaullah Abbasi, claimed that extrajudicial killings are the best modus operandi to curb crime. The official said that
“Extrajudicial killings and other actions cannot be justified officially but society has come to accept this ‘modus operandi’ of police to eradicate crimes and make streets safer. It is not necessary for an encounter to be seen as genuine only if a policeman loses his life in it. You can see police have restored peace and order in the city through this modus operandi.”
He also claimed that Districts of Sindh Province such as Hyderabad and Khairpur had become model districts — thanks to this ‘modus operandi’. “If this [formula] continues then I can assure you that we will be able to create ideal conditions in crime control,” said the officer.
Even for the sake of argument, if the statement of the officer is to be believed, then there is no need to have courts and fair trials. There is also no use of civil and political rights. The country only needs to be handed over to police so that whole country can become a model for the other countries.
During the briefing the SSP Irfan Baloch referring to his brave actions of “half-fry”, claiming that during the first quarter of the year, 73 suspects were “arrested” after they fell “injured” in encounters. He warned, “Remember, none of them [suspects] can obtain bail. We have made a strong case to ensure they were denied any chance of getting bail”.
Apart from the drive of extrajudicial killings and disabling for life, the police and Rangers are also not happy with the post-mortem practice. They have given a strong message to the doctors conducting autopsy, by abducting a medico-legal officer (MLO) and his brother at gunpoint and torturing him to delete important files— pertaining to autopsies of suspects killed in “encounters” with police— from his laptop and mobile phone. (Please see the details of the case by clicking this link).
Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province, the country’s largest metropolis is a hub of extrajudicial killings. It has been listed as the 10th most violent city of the world, according to Al Jazeera, with a murder rate of 12.3 per 100,000 residents. The United States Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security website, warns citizen’s of United States to postpone all non essential journeys to Karachi: “Despite a large-scale security operation carried out by the Pakistani Rangers and the Sindh Police, the violent crime rate remains high.” Yet, the Sindh Cabinet, on 11 February 2015, was briefed by the IGP Ghulam Hyder Jamali, who informed Members that the crime rate had declined significantly in the Province.
Under Article 9 of the Constitution of Pakistan it is incumbent upon the state to ensure the safety and security of the people. The right to life as enumerated by the Supreme Court in Shezla Zia vs WAPDA case expanded the meaning of the right to life to mean a dignified life free from fear of being killed. However, at the same time, the law enforcement agencies (LEAs), particularly the military and its intelligence agencies have been given the power to shoot suspects on sight and to try them in military courts as a result of a constitutional amendment. LEAs are therefore free to kill any person on the pretext of terrorism or encounters. And, the result of this freedom and impunity is a terrorized population.
Between the extremists and the rampaging law enforcement officers lies a fast shrinking space for citizens. Those that cannot jump are being fried, in either the frying pan or the fire.
