27 suspects killed, 294 hurt in police encounters since January

25-04-2022

Anna Magdalena Comploi 

Pakistan and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

Since January, 2022, 27 suspects were killed and 294 hurt in ‘encounters’ with Karachi police (Ali, 2022). During the same period, 2,345 suspects were arrested. This means that suspects were injured in approximately 12.54% and killed in 1.15% of arrests. This represents a worrying increase, since January, on what was an already considerable rate of killed and wounded suspects. According to a news report by Dawn, Karachi police have recently adopted a ‘proactive policing policy’ in response to a rise in street crime (Ali, 2022). Experts believe that this proactive approach to deliver swift justice is a short-sighted strategy (Ali, 2022). When police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon was questioned about the increasing number of shootouts, he stated the police is under pressure from government and society due to the high crime rates. Police Chief Memon further elaborated that Karachi police is challenging repeat suspects by knocking on their doors (Ali, 2022). In addition, they have adopted a mechanism to collect CCTV footage, identify criminals and adopting more aggressive policing methods to deter criminals (Ali, 2022). 

Sources and further reading: 

 Ali, I. (2022, April 13). Karachi police find answer to street crimes in quick ‘encounters.’ Dawn. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.dawn.com/news/1684684/karachi-police-find-answer-to-street-crimes-in-quick-encounters