What can be done about police in the Land of Pure?
The death of two people in Karachi on Monday in police custody and the murder of a third by a police constable are incidents that belie the claim that the police have somehow become a better force. According to newspaper reports, a maid working at a bungalow in Defence Housing Authority had been accused by her employer of theft and brought to the police station for questioning. She died in police custody in mysterious circumstances a couple of days later. The manner in which the maid was tortured and her family members rounded up for a crime that had yet to be established needs to be properly investigated. The ASP of Civil Lines area under whose jurisdiction this case fell, claimed that the 25-year-old woman, a mother of three, committed suicide in the lock-up. In a separate incident on the same day, a 55-year-old man was picked up and tortured at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal police station because he had lodged a complaint against a shop owner whose brother was an under-training police officer. The torture was so severe that he suffered a heart attack and died. The police have registered a case and are investigating. The third incident involves a police constable who is understood to have murdered a woman, a mother of three from Lyari. The man has, however, been arrested by the police. The practice of torture is common in Pakistan as the police have never been known for their investigative skills. Such cases are good examples of how the police work: harass the victims instead of going after the criminals, spoil the cases and do whatever it takes to protect themselves. There must be a judicial inquiry into these deaths and those responsible punished. It is only then that the end of justice can be met.
http://www.dawn.com/2003/11/20/ed.htm