ISLAMABAD: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged for an immediate high-level judicial inquiry into deaths resulting from operations conducted by Punjab’s Crime Control Department (CCD), alleging that the department has adopted a ‘deliberate policy of staged police encounters leading to extrajudicial killings’.
Last year, the Punjab government has formally approved the establishment of the CCD to curb organised crime and protect life and property in the province. However, human rights advocates and civil society members have been voicing their concerns about the alleged encounters and the number of casualties.
Chairperson of the HRCP Asad Iqbal Butt while terming such killings as fundamentally undermining rule of law and constitutional protections in the province revealed on basis of press reports that as many as 670 CCD-led encounters over the course of eight months in 2025, resulted in the deaths of 924 suspects, with only two police officers killed during the same period. Stated in a press release of the HRCP that the extreme casualty imbalance – averaging more than two fatal encounters daily—combined with the uniformity of operational patterns across districts, indicates an institutionalized practice rather than isolated incidents of misconduct. The fact-finding mission has therefore called for an urgent high-level judicial inquiry into these deaths.
The mission’s investigation reveals systematic violations of Pakistan’s domestic laws and international human rights obligations. Although the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act 2022 clearly mandates the FIA to investigate every custodial death under the supervision of the NCHR, the mission found no evidence that this mandatory procedure was necessarily followed in the cases examined. In one petition reviewed by the mission, it was the court that directed the FIA to investigate.
Moreover, magisterial inquiries required under Sections 174–176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure appear not to have been conducted. The fact that the Punjab government and CCD and police officials did not respond to the mission’s request for a meeting is deeply disappointing as this lack of transparency indicates an institutional unwillingness to address credible allegations of grave human rights violations. The mission has also documented a pervasive climate of fear among victims’ families, one of which reported pressure from police officials to bury the deceased immediately and claimed they were warned that other relatives could be killed if they pursued the case further. Such intimidation constitutes criminal conduct and represents a fundamental obstruction of justice.
The mission has found that CCD operations fail to comply with the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which require that lethal force be absolutely necessary and proportionate, and that violators be held accountable. The nearly uniform narrative in CCD press releases and first information reports—that the suspects fired first, that the police acted in self-defence and that those killed were necessarily ‘hardened’ criminals—appeared in virtually every case reviewed, suggesting orchestrated messaging rather than independent operational outcomes.
The mission has pointed out that sustainable public safety cannot be achieved through lethal shortcuts that bypass investigation, prosecution and judicial accountability. Among other measures, the report calls for an immediate province-wide moratorium on all encounter operations until comprehensive legal safeguards and independent oversight mechanisms are established. It recommends that the FIA investigate all encounter-related deaths under NCHR supervision as well as the establishment of an independent civilian police oversight commission and mandatory compensation for families of all individuals killed in encounter operations.
