Hardly three days after the Sahiwal tragedy, a couple in Karachi borne the brunt of yet another police action against suspects yesterday. Not even a week has passed that the committee tasked with probing the death of 10-year-old Amal Umer suggested an overhaul in the mechanism of police operations to control crimes and apprehend lawbreakers. However, it can be said with disappointment that either dust of achieves or the termite will eat away the Amal-Committee report that recommended some very sensible practices and suggestions to avoid civilian casualties.

As argued in earlier editorials of this paper, the report that investigated the causes of Amal’s death and suggested steps that the police needed to take, the recklessness and little concern for the civilian lives that police has shown in recent days is not a problem of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in one province. Apprehending the criminals at the cost of endangering civilians is becoming a regular practice all over the country. Whereas in Sahiwal incident the couple along with their child was killed, the Karachi encounter-resembling action of the police injured a man and his pregnant wife whose condition is serious.

What is alarming is the frequency with which such incidents are occurring. What should alarm us even more is our tacit approval of what police does against the suspects and criminals? Encounters. These encounters can also be fake ones. After all, Naqeeb Mehsud’s murder was one such fake encounter. In August last year, the police in Faisalabad killed two youngsters and tried to get away with their actions by telling that the two opened fired on police during a chase. What is frustrating is the fact that every such accident leads to a committee or joint investigation team whose recommendations are rarely, if ever, acted upon. It is high time for the government and officials of LEAs to rethink the operational methodology of LEAs.