Pakistan: Protest in Lahore against police over ‘fake encounter’

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Hundreds of people in Pakistan’s Lahore protested against the police for the killing of two men in an alleged encounter in the Chuhng area.

Protesters of the Green Town took to the streets, burnt tyres and statged a demonstration against the police, Dawn newspaper reported.

According to the protestors, the killing of the men is extrajudicial killing. They alleged that the Lahore Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) police officials murdered two young men, Naqash and Abdul Rehman, in custody for not paying PKR 1 milllion bribe they had demanded for their release.

They said that the families could hardly manage to pay PKR 150,000 as bribe to the CIA officials but they later murdered them in a fake encounter for not paying the demanded amount.

“I gave PKR150,000 to the CIA police official, Rana Akram, in the presence of some witnesses when my son was in his custody,” a man said as quoted by Dawn.

Another man alleged that the CIA officials had got PKR 100,000 from him for the release of his son who was still in his custody and feared that they would also kill him in a fake encounter.

Dawn further reported that a young protester claimed that his brother, Danish, and his friend, Shahid, were also in the CIA police custody and feared that the police officials would kill them in an encounter.

The protesters appealed to the police higher-ups and the Punjab government to take notice of the extrajudicial killings and take action against the CIA police officials involved in the incident.

Enforced disappearances are used as a tool by Pakistani authorities to terrorize people who question the all-powerful army establishment of the country or seek individual or social rights. The report suggests that it is a crime that is often used by the authorities to get rid of people that are considered a “nuisance” without any arrest warrant, charge or prosecution.

The forceful abductions are being carried out in Balochistan since the early 2000s. Students are often the most targeted section of these abductions. The victims also include several political activists, journalists, teachers, doctors, poets, and lawyers. (ANI)