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HRCSA FACT AND FINDING REPORT FOR LAW AND ORDER SITUATION IN SINDH PROVINCE ( PAKISTAN ) 2015-16

 This is the part of the report which was written for Operation Zarb e Ghazab but this portion is especially directed towards Karachi  sind with regard to the MQM agitations in front of United Nations. This report was sent to UNO by Chairmen John Ericson. The sources, where not quoted in the text, were Human Rights Commission south Asia surveys, fact finding reports, and communications from its correspondents and private citizens; official gazettes, economic and legal documents and other public releases and statements; reports in the national and regional press. Considering the limitation of the official reports, press accounts and sample surveys conducted by NGOs, figures and assessments offered here may not always represent the full or the exact picture. They should betaken as a reflection of the trend during the year.  

Commission did not observe any Human right violations during the Zarab e Ghazab operations. 

1.   The report to UNO by John Ericson states that commission did not find any violations. This was done after a great deal of instigation which concluded that the operation is done against all terrorist including the organizations or parties behind them (providing them support). 

2.   He specifically stated that the report from MQM stating that they are the only one being targeted is not true at all. Blaming the Govt for all irregularities. 

3.   People in Pakistan working for the commission stated that the arrested people from MQM or other associated with political parties are the one involve in terrorism and many other crimes. 

4.   There is no doubt now that the peace situation in Karachi is much better than it was in 2013 with regard to crimes and the result from the Rangers operation. 

5.   There were reports surfaced about non judicial killings, police abductions, death while in custody, but they all deserve to be judged by all means for their accuracy. 

6.   The true assumption is that there is no hand of civil govt can be found in this operation. 

7.   Regard to the proper end of this operation there are a lot of questions abound as the role of local administration (how) to keep the city clean. 

8.   The commission regrets that Pakistan was not elected in Council of Human Right in UN for the second time. Emphasizing that UN mandate not only observed but thoroughly implemented to the roots of the problems. 

9.   John Ericson concluded that Pakistan was not able to convince the UN body/council that it is doing everything in its power to implement the Human rights in their country. Pakistan only received 105 votes. This should be a serious reminder for the Govt of Pakistan to start enforcing the human rights act at all levels. 

Human Right Commission of South Asia had observed certain detoriating conditions as far as the civil and army based logistics are concerned. This in near future can cause a serious concern of army takeover!! Putting democracy at serious risk. John Ericson mentioned in his observation that there is a certain number of people who are hell bent to destroy the civil societies, the normal operation for these people were never easy now they are becoming more and more difficult and also alarmingly hazardous to their life and well being. 

The people who use to provide all assistance to these societies are now becoming a hindrance and curtailing all the right efforts. Along with this there is a lot of bad propaganda now started against these platforms which has truly put the life in danger of these people. These human right participants are also the target of extremist and criminal elements. Also the state is putting them in a jeopardizing situation by following the civil society participants. 

The year 2015 saw just in Sindh a total of 1496 kidnapping of women, who were than forcefully married against their wishes. 129 cases of throwing acid on women faces when they refused to abide unlawful demands of their relatives/husbands. 

Sindh police reported 3289 police standoff with criminals. 170 police and rangers personals were killed

in the line of duty, while on the other hand the number of criminals killed was 723. After the incident of killings which took place in Army school Peshawar, the govt of Pakistan reinstated the death penalty. In Sindh there were 11 incidents recorded for destroying the Hindu Mandir and Church.  Punjab saw hundreds killed in religious rioting. Yet pressing human rights concerns and worrying trends made for a much longer list. Horrific acts of terrorism and sectarian violence continued to ravage the country. Attacks on religious minorities encroached into areas where they had been largely absent hitherto and the government failed to take measures to reassure the citizens that it had the ability or the commitment to clamp down on faith-based violence. Extrajudicial killings, unlawful and arbitrary detention, 

custodial torture and enforced disappearance continued. Well over two million internally displaced persons, most of them women and children, had to leave their homes in search of safety and joined multitudes of others who had been displaced in earlier bouts of armed conflict between the security forces and militant extremists. 

A proliferation of instances of the so-called honour killing, rape, acid attacks, domestic violence and assaults against women was evident. Infants bore the brunt of the prolonged drought in Tharparkar, where over 500 paid with their lives for the apathy in high places. For another year, Pakistan lagged most Asian countries in educating a significant proportion of its children,  especially girls. The healthcare system, already among the weakest in South Asia, continued to deteriorate at a fast pace. Targeted attacks on healthcare workers and their security escorts posed a serious challenge to what some already considered Pakistan’s losing battle against polio. The high incidence of polio in Pakistan broke the country’s own previous record. Child and bonded labour remained rampant and labourers including children, continued 

to work in hazardous conditions. 
 

Sindh 

Out of about 100,000 police personnel for the entire province some 34,000 were deployed across Karachi. More than 4,000 of the Karachi policemen were on protocol/VIP security duty, while about 12,000 worked as drivers, gardeners, etc. in the city, meaning that only 18,000 were available for fighting crime and controlling law and order in a city of roughly 20 million. About 3,000 of the police were deployed for investigation.  Comprising citizens who provided technical support to police and helped their compatriots seek justice, the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC)  was looking to expand its operation to all districts in the Sindh province. At the end of 2015, the CPLC had presence in six districts and formal offices in Karachi and Hyderabad. A CPLC report showed that out of 113 police stations in Karachi 17 did 

not have toilets. There were no police vehicles in four police stations, while in eight stations the police did not even have an official motorcycle. The furniture in more than 50 police stations was damaged to the point that it could not be used. The police lacked investigation skills and training and basic on-job security 

equipment including bulletproof jackets and helmets. Lower salary was also said to be an obstacle to the honest discharge of duty against the terrorists and Criminal mafias in the province. 

Karachi 

A bustling metropolis of 20 million and Pakistan’s economic capital, Karachi is also the nation’s citadel of crime and of sectarian, extremist, and gang violence that has long afflicted the city.  Hold-ups and robberies in the chaotic environs of Karachi had been very common but particularly unnerving in 2015 were the robberies at the offices of respected charities such as Edhi Foundation and Chhipa Welfare Association.  According to the Human Rights Commission South Asia statistics on killings in Karachi during the year in review, 2,909 people, including women,  children, suspects and law-enforcers, were killed in the city.  The law enforcement agencies killed 494 suspects in Karachi in 2014;  some 142 law-enforcers were also killed in the metropolis in the one-year period. Out of these, 130 were policemen and 12 were paramilitary soldiers.  Twenty-seven private security guards were also killed during the year. 

As many as 134 political activists were killed in the port city.  While 340 unidentified bodies were found in different city areas. 661 people were murdered for several other reasons.  As many as 120 people were killed on sectarian grounds, 89 were targeted by some banned sectarian outfits, Some 87 people were killed in the lingering armed conflict between criminal gangs in Lyari area.

 According to Human Rights Commission South Asia statistics based on media reports, 457 and 135 suspects were killed in encounters with police and Rangers, respectively, while police torture killed at least two persons during 2014. As many as 134 people were killed in what were believed to be instances of personal dispute or enmity with the perpetrators, 107 were killed by robbers, seven were burnt to death and three were killed by security guards during robbery attempts.  As many as 36 men were killed by stray bullets; 28 were killed on railway tracks; 61 died due to a drug overdose or consuming toxic liquor, while three 

people were reported to have died in prison.  According to the media monitoring of the killings in Karachi, 78 children were killed during the year. Eight of them were kidnapped and murdered.  Six women became victim to the heinous crime of karo-kari, or the killing in the name of the family’s so-called honour. Four men were also killed in this  ‘honour-related’ crime.