On the 9th of April 2026, two brothers from Muzaffargarh, Mohammad Haseeb Asif and Mohammad Tauheed Asif, were killed in what Punjab Police described as an armed encounter in Rahim Yar Khan. According to the official account, the men were involved in a motorcycle snatching incident and opened fire when intercepted, prompting retaliatory action. Their family disputes this version, alleging the brothers had been detained a day earlier without a warrant and were later killed in custody. A petition seeking an independent judicial inquiry has since been filed, and local bar associations have also called for an investigation. The case has once again brought into focus a long-standing and deeply contested issue in Pakistan: whether police encounters represent necessary law enforcement or an abuse of power.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) documented more than 3,300 deaths in over 2,100 alleged encounters nationwide, with Sindh and Punjab accounting for the majority. During the same period, dozens of police officers were also killed in the line of duty, highlighting the genuine risks associated with policing violent crime. In recent years, however, the scale of encounters has intensified. Punjab alone reported over 1,000 encounters in 2024, a sharp increase from previous years. While police officials attribute this rise to improved operational capacity and a more assertive response to crime, critics argue that the consistency and volume of such incidents merit closer scrutiny.
This debate sharpened further after the establishment of Punjab’s Crime Control Department (CCD) in February 2025, a specialised unit created to combat organised crime. Its operations have since drawn significant attention. An HRCP fact-finding report published in February 2026 concluded that the CCD appears to be pursuing what it described as “a systemic policy of extrajudicial killing in contravention of the law and Constitution.” The report documented at least 670 alleged encounters resulting in 924 deaths between April and December 2025, an average of more than two fatal incidents per day.
Framing such measures as a pathway to ‘zero crime’ risks normalising practices that may blur the line between law enforcement and illegality
The issue has also reached the courts. In December 2025, a petition before the Lahore High Court cited over 1,100 encounter-related deaths and called for judicial intervention. The following month, a Rawalpindi court declared one such encounter “suspicious” after CCTV footage reportedly showed the suspect alive in custody before the alleged shootout. As the HRCP observed, “the extreme casualty imbalance, averaging more than two fatal encounters daily, combined with the uniformity of operational patterns across districts, indicates an institutionalised practice rather than isolated incidents of misconduct.”
The debate over police encounters gained national prominence after the 2018 killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud in Karachi, a case that became a symbol of concerns around misidentification and extrajudicial action. On January 13, 2018, the 27-year-old from South Waziristan, who had moved to Karachi and was known to be interested in modelling, was shot dead in what police described as an encounter. Senior Superintendent of Police Rao Anwar initially claimed Mehsud was a militant linked to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. However, a subsequent inquiry found no evidence to support these allegations, raising serious questions about the legitimacy of the operation and the broader use of encounter narratives.
The case also drew attention to Rao Anwar’s record. He had long been associated with over 400 encounter killings in Karachi’s Malir district, with rights groups alleging that many were staged. In 2019, the United States Treasury Department placed him on its sanctions list under its human rights accountability framework, citing involvement in serious abuses, including extrajudicial killings.
Despite the high-profile nature of the case, legal proceedings struggled to secure accountability. In January 2023, an anti-terrorism court acquitted Rao Anwar and 17 co-accused, citing insufficient evidence. Reports indicated that key witnesses had recanted, and weaknesses in the prosecution undermined the case. For many observers, the outcome highlighted structural challenges within Pakistan’s criminal justice system, including evidentiary gaps, witness vulnerability, and procedural shortcomings. It reinforced concerns about the difficulty of ensuring accountability in encounter-related cases.
Police officials maintain that encounters are not a preferred tool but, at times, an unavoidable response in a landscape shaped by organised crime, dacoity networks, and militancy. In court submissions, the Punjab Police have pointed to measurable outcomes, arguing that more assertive policing has contributed to a decline in certain categories of crime between 2024 and 2025. Data presented by the Crime Control Department (CCD) claims a 64% reduction in property crimes, a 60% drop in robbery-murder cases, and a significant fall in reported highway robberies, from around 41,000 to 18,608. From the state’s perspective, these figures suggest a deterrent effect and improved operational efficiency, with officials emphasising that officers act in self-defence against heavily armed suspects.
Critics, however, caution against evaluating effectiveness solely through crime statistics, particularly where due process concerns persist. Lahore-based human rights lawyer Rida Hosain has argued that framing such measures as a pathway to “zero crime” risks normalising practices that may blur the line between law enforcement and illegality, warning that once such methods take hold, they rarely remain confined to alleged criminals.
These tensions are further shaped by structural constraints within Pakistan’s criminal justice system. Law enforcement agencies operate under pressure from overburdened courts, low conviction rates, limited investigative capacity, and strong public demand for swift justice. Within this environment, concerns about corruption remain central. Transparency International Pakistan’s National Corruption Perception Survey 2025 again ranked the police as the country’s most corruption-prone institution, a position it has held consistently over the years. Pakistan’s Corruption Perceptions Index score saw only a marginal improvement, rising from 27 in 2024 to 28 in 2025, alongside a slight decline in global ranking, reflecting persistent governance challenges.
Some serving and former officers, speaking anonymously in media reports, have acknowledged that encounters can become a “shortcut” in a slow and cumbersome system, while others insist they remain a last resort in genuinely life-threatening situations. Allegations from within policing circles themselves, including claims that encounter units operate with institutional backing or are at times used for political purposes, add further complexity, though such assertions remain difficult to independently verify.
Legal safeguards do exist. The Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act, 2022, mandates investigations into custodial deaths and provides a framework for accountability. Yet human rights organisations argue that enforcement is uneven, with families often facing procedural and social barriers in seeking justice. Reports have also pointed to instances where relatives of the deceased were pressured into silence or hurried burials, raising concerns about compliance with both legal standards and due process protections.
The Muzaffargarh case encapsulates many of these tensions. The victims’ family maintains that on April 8, 2026, the two brothers were taken into custody without a warrant from Head Panjnad by local police and transferred overnight to Rahim Yar Khan. By the next day, both were dead. Police, however, registered FIR No. 379/26 at Sadar Khanpur, stating that the men were killed in an exchange of fire after fleeing a snatching incident, with SHO Muslim Zia describing it as a legitimate operation.
The family rejects this account. Their sister, Muazama Asif Bhatti, called it a “cold-blooded execution,” pointing out that both men had long worked informally with police as “zimni” writers, which raises questions about why they were never formally charged if involved in crime. Their mother, Nazia Anjum, has petitioned the Inspector General of Punjab and the Chief Justice, seeking an independent inquiry, while local bar associations have condemned the incident. The family has also requested protection, fearing further reprisals.
As with many such cases, the outcome will hinge on the credibility of the investigation. More broadly, Pakistan’s encounter debate reflects a deeper dilemma: balancing effective crime control with the rule of law. While police frame encounters as a necessary response to immediate threats, critics warn that their normalisation risks eroding due process. Bridging this divide will require stronger oversight, credible investigations, and a sustained effort to rebuild public trust in the justice system.