PAKISTAN: No action against the police officers who killed two persons in fake encounter to take personal revenge 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the Sindh provincial government has not taken any action against police officers who killed two young persons in a police encounter to settle personal issues with a high ranking police officer. The government has also closed down the inquiry that it promised through the media. The two persons were arrested one night before the incident and then were declared terrorists on the charges of killing lady health workers of the polio campaign. One man was declared a foreign terrorist but later on it was proved that he is a Pakistani citizen, having a national ID card and has come with his mother to Karachi five days before the incident. Whereas the other person was a resident of Karachi and was a popular social worker in his community and always raising his voice against the police atrocities in his town on the arrests of ordinary persons and attacks on the houses for the intention of getting money. He also filed a case in the high court against the high police officer for keeping his brother in illegal detention for one month.

The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), who was allegedly involved in the fake encounter is said to be the friend of a high government official who is very close to the chief minister. The people of the local community are continuously on protests and demonstrations but authorities have ignored all their protests. The local people say that they are from a poor community so there is no hope of justice with them.

CASE NARRATIVE:

On the early morning of December 19 at 2.30 A.M. a police party under the Station House Officer (SHO) of Shrab Goth police station, Malir district, Karachi, raided the Jhang Abad, Machar colony, Sohrab Goth, and smashed the lights of a political party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf, to show the attack was on the locality. The police entered the house of one young cloth merchant, Mr. Abdul Sattar, and arrested him and his brother-in-law, Mr. Agha Muhammad. Agha who was sleeping in an adjacent house which was treated as the guest room of Sattar. They have been shifted to unknown place and there whereabouts were not known.

One day before the arrests of the two young persons lady health workers were killed in the same vicinity, the Sohrab Goth, and in the months of July one male doctor of the polio campaign was killed and one UN official was shot and injured who was also running polio campaign in the same area.

Police took the advantage of the killings of the polio workers and killed Sattar and Agha in a fake police encounter. After killing the two young men police quickly hatched a plan and informed the media that the killers of the lady health workers were hiding in the locality and police have cordoned off the area and there are chances of a police encounter. As the persons from electronic channels arrived at the scene with cameras and reporters police told them there were six persons, two were killed and four ran away. Police also claimed them as the terrorists from the Taliban. The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mr. Rao Anwar informed the government about the killing of terrorists in encounter and got the reward from the government.

The family members of the deceased persons were not knowing about the killing but in the evening they received a call from Edhi center that two person’s bodies are lying in the cold storage which were deposited by the police and from their pockets their ID cards and some papers were found on which the telephone number was from this house. The family members quickly reached the mortuary and found the bodies which were bearing torture marks and bullet holes. They brought bodies from the mortuary and at 12 pm buried them. As the news of the fake encounter spread in the locality people started protests and closed down national high way. People also picketed out side the police station and police used tear gas and baton charged them.

The eye witnesses told the media that at around 2’ O clock a police party brought two persons who were blind folded. The persons were taken to a grave yard, their bands on the eyes were taken off and they were ordered to run. As they started to walk away the police party opened fire on them and both of them died immediately. At this moment the SHO and SSP were monitoring the operation and quickly started making telephone calls to unknown persons.

The police have also brought a paper before the media on which it was written in Urdu language that “Dear Ameer sahib (the commander of local Taliban) I have completed the work assigned for the polio workers”. The local people and his family member say that he was a completely illiterate man and did not know how to write. The local people argue that Taliban people never wrote to Ameer and are never allowed to write. They say he was against terrorism and was pointing out always the activities of armed groups in the area.

They say and it was reported in the media that he was falsely implicated in the killings of polio workers and police wanted to take credit for killing them as there was strong pressure on the police to arrest killers not only from provincial government but also from the prime minister and president of Pakistan.

The government has failed to initiate any kind of enquiry against the incident of fake police encounter which was proved to be false as all the sections of the media have pointed out that it was not encounter but police intentionally killed them in their personal revenge against Sattar.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

It is reported in the media that deceased Sattar was a social worker of the locality and was driving a movement against the drug dens running under the direct patronage of the police particularly by the SSP Rao. He also pointed out many times to the provincial authorities and the judiciary about arms dealers and training camps of terrorists which infuriated the police racket. Sattar was also the activist of Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of former cricketer Imran Khan and he organized the party in many slum areas.

The dispute between police and Sattar has deepened on April 4, 2012 when the incharge of Shrab Goth check post, inspector Mr. Amir Bux Solangi, on the instruction of SSP Mr. Rao, raided the house of Sattar and arrested his brother Mr. Abdul Hannan without any charge. He was kept in incommunicado for more than 40 days. The deceased and his family members tried many times to know about the whereabouts of his brother but always police refused to inform them. He filed cases of habeas corpus in different courts including the Sindh High court. After getting orders from high court he was released but immediately arrested. The police asked Rupees 0.5 million. He tried to pay but he could not arrange such amount. He than again contacted high court and got the release on PAYING Rupees one hundred thousand. At the time of his brother’s release a policeman conveyed a message from the SSP Rao that “if he again starts putting hurdles in the working of police then he should start counting his days of death”.

When his brother was released he did not know where he was kept. His body bore many torture marks and he also lost his memory.

SSP Rao is very notorious in police encounters. During 1994 when the government was conducting operations against an ethnic party, the MQM, SSP Rao killed many persons in fake encounters and also during the severe torture.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write the letters of appeals to the following authorities calling for a judicial enquiry in to the incident of fake police encounter in the case of killing of Mr. Sattar and Mr. Agha. Please also urge them to prosecute the all police officials including SSP Rao who were allegedly involved in the murder. Also urge them to pay compensation to the bereaved families.

For examples, The AHRC writes a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions calling for his intervention into this matter.

 

 

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