KARACHI - The Sindh Assembly members on Thursday came down hard on police after a 19-month-old child was killed allegedly in firing by the law enforcers during crossfire between police and outlaws. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Khurram Sherzaman said that cases of innocent citizens’ killing at the hands of police were reported quite regularly, but the provincial government did not bother to take any action against the negligent policemen.
He added that Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had talked about police reforms but to no avail. “The law and order situation has become worst as the people are looted in broad daylight and the cases of target killings have restarted, but the province have no home minister as the portfolio is with the chief minister,” said Sherzaman.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movevment-Pakistan lawmaker Khawaja Izharulhasan also lambasted the police, saying that armed policemen spread the panic on streets and roads of the city. “The policemen with heavy weapons ride on motorbikes and treat the common citizens as if they are hardcore criminals,” he said.
The Minister for Local Government Saeed Ghani expressed the government’s powerlessness and said that they have no control whatsoever on the police as the department was not answerable to them. Ghani said the new law was going to be presented in the Assembly soon to bring reforms and make the police department answerable to the provincial government not the Pakistan Peoples Party. He asked the opposition parties to support the bill that would be presented soon.
The Minister said that in every other province of the country, the provincial governments have control on the police, asking why Sindh was being treated ‘discriminately ‘. “Police have all the powers and sometimes, the law enforcers go beyond the same. Should we give them a license to kill,” he asked.
Series of incidents
In a recent incident of the law enforcers’ negligence, a 19-month boy Ahsan Shaikh was killed when he came under the ‘crossfire’ between police and the robbers near University Road at Safoora Chowrangi. It may be noted here that this was not first time that an innocent fell prey of the police’s negligence as similar sort of incident were reported quite regularly.
In the same month, a 10-year old Sajjad Khan was killed during the crossfire between police and criminals in Landhi. A medical student Nimra Baig was also amongst those killed in similar incidents as she succumbed to injuries after being shot inside a rickshaw by the policemen who were chasing the suspected street criminals on 23rd February near Anda Morr, North Karachi.
In January this year, a 40-year old Adnan and his pregnant wife Saqba Bibi sustained bullet injuries in Korangi area during the encounter held between the criminals and the law enforcers.
In another horrific and non-professional act of police, a 10-year old girl Amal Umer was shot dead inside a car when she was travelling along with her parents on 13th August 2018 in the defence area. Similarly, a passerby Maqsood-a lone brother of five sisters-breathed his last after being shot by the policemen who were trying to nab the criminals in January 2018. In most of the incidents, the police claimed that the citizens were shot by the suspects but later the investigation revealed that the citizens sustained the policemen’s fires.