The country's police have killed at least 924 people in the last eight months in Pakistan's Punjab province. These killings were carried out from April to December last year. Pakistan's leading human rights organization, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), has given this explosive information. Al Jazeera news.
The report said that the Crime Control Department (CCD) was formed in Punjab in April 2025 to suppress major and organized crime. These killings have occurred since then. At least 924 suspects have been killed in 670 'encounters' since the formation of the CCD.
The family of Zubayda Bibi in the city of Bahawalpur in southern Punjab fell victim to such killings in November last year. She said that when armed officers of the CCD raided our house, they looted everything from the house. Zubaida alleged that the officers also took away her mobile phone, cash, jewellery and her daughter's dowry money.
She said, "Along with all this looting, they also took away my sons." Al Jazeera reported that within 24 hours of the abduction, five members of Zubaida Bibi's family were killed in police encounters in different districts of Punjab.
Among the dead were Zubaida's three sons—Imran (25), Irfan (23), Adnan (18)—and two sons-in-law. Zubaida told HRCP, "They broke into our house in Bahawalpur and took everything."
We followed them to Lahore and pleaded with them to release our children. But the next morning, we heard that the five were dead, Zubaida said.
When Zubaida later filed a case in court, the police threatened to kill the rest of the family if she did not file a case. Zubaida's husband, Abdul Jabbar, insisted that my sons had no criminal record. They were all married, had children and were working.
In an investigative report released on Tuesday (February 17), HRCP said that the Punjab CCD is systematically carrying out extrajudicial killings in violation of the law and the constitution.
Al Jazeera reported that the CCD was formed under Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif. Maryam is the daughter of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the niece of current Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
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