ISLAMABAD – In a scathing indictment, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has accused Punjab’s Crime Control Department (CCD) of orchestrating systematic fake encounters, resulting in 924 deaths over just eight months in 2025. This alarming pattern, the commission warns, undermines the rule of law and constitutional safeguards in the country.
Citing media reports, HRCP revealed that the CCD led at least 670 such operations, claiming the lives of 924 suspects while only two police personnel were killed in the same period. The stark imbalance—averaging over two fatal encounters daily—points to an institutionalized practice rather than isolated incidents, according to the rights body.
‘This consistent modus operandi across districts screams for a high-level judicial inquiry,’ HRCP stated emphatically. Families of the victims live in pervasive fear, with one case highlighting police coercion to hastily cremate bodies and threats against pursuing justice. Such tactics, HRCP argues, constitute criminal obstruction of justice.
Police encounters in the name of crime control have long been controversial in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab and Sindh, where provincial governments defend them as essential against crime and militancy. Yet, courts, civil society, and rights groups have repeatedly flagged extrajudicial killings and lack of accountability.
The HRCP report slams the CCD for flouting UN principles on the use of force by law enforcers, which mandate lethal force only when absolutely necessary and proportionate, with strict accountability for violations. Official narratives in press releases and FIRs follow a cookie-cutter script: suspects fired first, police responded in self-defense, and the deceased were ‘notorious criminals.’ This, HRCP says, reeks of a scripted message over genuine operations.
Sustainable public safety cannot be achieved through ‘lethal shortcuts’ that bypass investigation, prosecution, and judicial oversight, the commission asserts. It demands an immediate halt to all encounter operations province-wide, mandatory independent probes, accountability for perpetrators, and structural reforms aligned with constitutional and international human rights standards.
Without swift reforms, HRCP cautions, the normalization of state violence could inflict irreversible damage on Pakistan’s justice system, democratic institutions, and global standing.