In Pakistan’s most populous province, a deepening controversy over police “encounters” has ignited alarm among human rights defenders, raising questions about whether crime control has come at the cost of due process and the right to life.
A recent report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) accuses Punjab’s Crime Control Department (CCD) of institutionalising extrajudicial killings under the guise of anti-crime operations. Established in February 2025 to tackle organised crime, the CCD has been credited by provincial authorities with sharply reducing robberies and street crime. But HRCP says the human toll of its methods is “deeply troubling” and potentially unlawful.
According to media tallies cited in the report, between January and August 2025 alone there were 670 alleged police encounters in Punjab, resulting in 924 suspect deaths. Only two police officers were reported killed in the same period, a disparity HRCP argues suggests staged or one sided operations rather than genuine armed confrontations. On average, the province recorded more than two fatal encounters each day during those months.
Behind the numbers, families describe a climate of fear and silence. Relatives of those killed allege they were pressured into hurried burials and warned against speaking publicly. Such accounts, HRCP says, point to violations of Pakistan’s Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act, 2022, which requires that all custodial deaths and police killings be investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency under the oversight of the National Commission for Human Rights. The watchdog claims these legal safeguards have rarely been followed.
As 2025 progressed, the death toll linked to encounters continued to rise. By year’s end, independent estimates ranged between 1,100 and 1,270 fatalities across as many as 2,564 encounters in Punjab far exceeding figures reported in other provinces. Critics say the scale and pace of killings suggest a policy of “instant justice” that bypasses courts and undermines constitutional protections.
Legal challenges have begun to surface. In December 2025, a petition before the Lahore High Court cited more than 1,100 encounter deaths and called for judicial intervention. The following month, a court in Rawalpindi ruled one police encounter suspicious after CCTV footage appeared to show the suspect alive and in custody before the alleged shootout.
Punjab police officials reject accusations of wrongdoing. They say CCD officers act only in self-defence against heavily armed criminals and argue that encounter statistics reflect intensified operations against violent gangs. Authorities point to claimed reductions of up to 60 percent in some crime categories as evidence of success and dismiss allegations of “fake encounters.”
Yet human rights advocates warn that even genuine crime threats cannot justify abandoning legal process. HRCP chairperson Asad Iqbal Butt has called for an independent, high level judicial inquiry, an immediate halt to questionable encounter practices, and stronger civilian oversight of policing. International standards, including UN principles on the use of force, permit lethal force only as a last resort to protect life, he noted.
For families of those killed, however, accountability remains distant. Many say they continue to seek answers about what happened to their relatives and whether the promise of safety in Pakistan can coexist with justice under law.
