Will The Same Treatment Be Meted Out To The Rangers` Personnel Too?

‘Same treatment be meted out to men who tortured my son`, said the old mother of deceased MQM`s worker while talking the DAWN news (http://www.dawn.com/news/1256292/). 

Aftab Ahmed was not only MQM`s active worker, but also the coordinator of MQM`s Deputy Convener Dr. Farooq Sattar. He was picked up by the personnel of law-enforcement agencies on May 1, 2016 from his house. Next day, the Rangers took him on 90-days` remand from the court. Then on Tuesday morning, his family came to know that he had died in the custody. The Sindh Rangers, in their official press release, claimed that Aftab had died due to a heart failure. However, the deceased`s family did see the multiple torture marks on his body. Later on, the post mortem report too confirmed the brutal torture on him. 

Aftab Ahmed was not the first man at all who died in the custody of law-enforcement agencies due to torture. Dozens of other cases have also been reported in which MQM`s workers were arrested and then died in the custody owing to brutal torture. Cases of alleged encounters as well as dumping mutilated dead bodies of MQM`s workers after arrest, are in addition to this.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has also expressed concerns over the increasing number of extra-judicial killings in Karachi. “More people were killed by law-enforcement agencies than by target killers”, HRCP said in its report in 2015. Since early 90`s, thousands of people, mainly belonging to MQM and Urdu speaking community, have been killed the same way by the Pakistani (LEA`s) law-enforcement agencies. 

Law-enforcement agencies officially deny these cases, however, off the record, they have always tried to justify them arguing that it is difficult to get the criminals convicted and accordingly punished through a legal process just because of the flaws prevailing in the judicial system of Pakistan. “Bringing criminals to justice this way has definitely helped reduce crimes in the city”, they say. “And majority of Karachi-ites support us over this”, they further claim.

This is fact that it is not easy especially for a common Pakistan to seek justice from the existing judicial system in the country. But, question is, how will it be ensured that an arrested accused is really a criminal and that, if he has truly committed a crime, he rightly deserves capital (death) punishment??  

The case of MQM`s worker Waseem Dehelvi can be quoted in this respect. He, along with his other brother, was arrested by the Police in the Baldia factory fire case. He was tortured by the Police personnel during the custody due to which he died. The post mortem report proved the torture on him as well (http://tribune.com.pk/story/897193/tortured-to-death-political-worker-killed-in-police-custody/ ).

More importantly, the investigators of the Balida factory case did not accuse him in their (JIT) report which was recently submitted to the Sindh High Court. Question is, when Waseem was not even accused in the case, why was he arrested, tortured and even killed by the police??

Very unfortunately, more new incidents of judicial murders after that, including of Aftab Ahmed, show that the law-enforcement Agencies have followed the same policy and, hence, are not in a mood to revisit it.

So, keeping in view their persistence, question is, will the officials of LEA`s also treat the Rangers personnel, who tortured Aftab Ahmed to death, the same way as they did the other accused who died in the custody due to torture or in fake encounters? If, according to them, bringing the alleged criminals to justice their own way really helped in restoring peace, will the LEA`s not cash in on this opportunity to reduce the cases of extra-judicial killings in Karachi especially when the victim`s (Aftab)  mother has formally demanded them to do that?

Now the upcoming time will tell us how the Pakistani authorities deal with the killers of Aftab Ahmed. If they adopt their self-devised speedy system of justice against their own people too, it will imply that their priority is to reduce crimes by hook or by crook. However, if they preferably make the Rangers personnel & officers pass through the same flawed judicial system existing in Pakistan, it would prove that the Pakistani law-enforcement agencies had been only victimizing the people belonging to a specific party and (Urdu speaking) community in the disguise of Karachi operation. So, let`s see what the time proves.