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Over thousand people killed in Pakistani Punjab police 'encounters'

More than one thousand people are said to have died in the private torture cells of the Punjab police or in false encounters in the past 10 years.

Intelligence reports say 960 people were gunned down in false encounters, while 114 people died in torture cells or police lock-ups. But, despite the orders of the courts, no policeman been punished for these extrajudicial murders.

According to intelligence reports, a more scandalous aspect is the fact that the police blame all unsolved crime on those who have been killed in this manner and often get medals for doing meritorious work.

Of those killed in such encounters, hardly 15 per cent happen to be hardcore criminals. The rest are innocent citizens, killed because they refuse to pay bribes or confess to crimes they have not committed.

The police have about 341 torture cells in Punjab, 74 of which are in the capital city of Lahore. These cells are located in rented houses, in criminals' dens or in farms belonging to feudal lords, some of whom enjoy the support of politicians, including members of parliament.

The police arrest people and take them to these cells without registering a case, thus making it almost impossible for the trial courts to ask the police to produce an arrested man in a habeas corpus petition.

The arrested persons are tortured to death in the cells, if they do not confess to crimes they never did or buy their freedom by bribing the police.

UNI

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