Police said on Wednesday that three militants suspected of involvement in suicide attacks on two churches had been killed during a failed escape attempt. Police had taken the suspects to a village in the suburbs of Lahore to retrieve suicide vests and weapons, and came under attack as they returned. The trio were arrested along with two others on August 4 over the twin Taliban suicide attacks on two churches in Lahore’s Youhanabad district in March that killed 17 people and wounded more than 70. The bombings occurred in March during prayers at two churches located around half a kilometre apart in Youhanabad, which is home to more than 100,000 Christians, officials said. The attacks sparked two days of rioting by Christians who clashed with police, blocked roads and forced a partial shutdown of the city’s public bus system. The police’s story that militants tried to rescue their colleagues and this led to a shootout in which all the suspects were killed has become a familiar one. After the similar death of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader Malik Ishaq, the killing of suspects in police custody during ‘shootouts’ has become a regular occurrence. Of course, if suspects or militants begin firing at police officials, they have every right to defend themselves. However, these police encounters, which are always shrouded in mystery, should not be used as an excuse to execute suspects extrajudicially. Police departments and investigation agencies need to have a mechanism in place to record and monitor these police encounters. There need to be internal investigations into police shootings to rule out any wrongdoing on the part of police officers. Although it is probably true that not all police officers are corrupt and many valiant officers have risked their lives in the government’s bid to fight terrorism countrywide, there has to be a system of accountability so that the police does not use this drive to become even more brutal. As Zarb-e-Azb and the other military operations against terrorists wind down, the nation will have to transition back to the mainstream justice system. The justice system will have to be rectified and given the means to convict terrorists and other criminals efficiently and swiftly. The notoriously trigger-happy police of Pakistan cannot replace the judicial system.
pk.shafaqna.com
