February 18, 2026
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called for an urgent high-level judicial inquiry into the hundreds of deaths resulting from police operations conducted by Punjab’s Crime Control Department (CCD), and has alleged that the department has adopted a “deliberate policy of staged police encounters leading to extrajudicial killings”. The rights watchdog describes it as a fundamental breakdown of constitutional governance across the province.
The findings, published in a fact-finding report titled ‘The CCD’s Role in Punjab’ and released on February 17, are among the most damning assessments of a provincial law enforcement body in recent history. They come after months of growing alarm among journalists, lawyers, civil society organisations and affected families over the frequency and circumstances of CCD-led police encounters since the department was formally established in April 2025.
A department born in controversy
The Crime Control Department (CCD) was approved by the Punjab government in February 2025 and passed into law under the Police Order (Amendment) Act 2025 in May. Presented as a specialised unit mandated to combat serious and organised crime, its creation was accompanied by official messaging about efficiency and deterrence under the provincial government’s so-called ‘Safe Punjab’ vision.
Almost immediately after it began operations, however, a sharp and sustained increase in police encounters attributed to the CCD was reported across the province. By October 2025, HRCP had already publicly identified the CCD as a “parallel police force with sweeping powers to register FIRs, detain suspects and carry out lethal operations against hardened criminals”, warning that such practices were undermining the rule of law and constitutional guarantees of due process. The CCD dismissed those concerns, alleging the commission had no evidence of extrajudicial killings.
The latest report was prepared following a formal fact-finding mission conducted on 22 and 23 December 2025, comprising HRCP Punjab vice-chair Raja Ashraf, HRCP director Farah Zia, staff members Maheen Pracha and Ali Haider, and journalist Imran Gabol.
Lahore tops all districts in CCD encounters
According to the HRCP, based on press accounts, at least 670 CCD-led encounters were carried out across Punjab over eight months in 2025, between 15 April and 15 December. These operations reportedly resulted in the deaths of 924 suspects — including two women — while only two police officials were killed during the same timeframe.
That stark disparity sits at the heart of the commission’s concerns. “In genuine armed confrontations, such a ratio appears to be statistically implausible,” the report states. “This imbalance suggests deliberate executions and reckless disregard for the sanctity of life.”
Geographically, the encounters were concentrated in Lahore, which recorded 139 incidents, followed by Faisalabad with 55, Sheikhupura with 47, and Gujranwala with 43. The data, drawn from HRCP’s Knowledge Management System and based entirely on press reports, is considered by the commission to be a conservative minimum, given that many incidents may go unreported.
336 suspected dacoits killed in encounters
By type of alleged offence, the highest number of encounters involved suspects accused of dacoity — 273 incidents resulting in 366 deaths — followed by robbery at 111 encounters, and murder at 80. Narcotics-related cases accounted for 61 encounters and 114 deaths.
Copy-paste FIRs
A close reading of a sample of First Information Reports filed after CCD encounters reveals what the HRCP describes as “copy-paste structuring rather than incident-specific reporting.” The reports found identical or near-identical phrasing across geographically separate incidents: phrases such as ‘the accused opened fire on the police party’, ‘the accused was killed in retaliatory firing’, and ‘accomplices escaped, taking advantage of the dark’ appeared repeatedly with minimal variation.
Perhaps most strikingly, multiple FIRs describe injured suspects briefly regaining consciousness after being shot to disclose their names, addresses, and criminal history before dying — a narrative so consistent across cases that the commission found it highly implausible. None of these alleged deathbed statements were recorded as formal dying declarations before a magistrate or medical officer, and none of the FIRs mentioned the presence of independent civilian witnesses.
“No FIR describes a suspect surviving long enough for arrest or medical treatment beyond death,” the report observes. “Moreover, no FIR or press release records any passerby or civilian being injured or killed, despite an encounter having allegedly taken place.”
Punjab Police press releases, the commission found, closely mirrored FIR language — reproducing the same sequence of events and justifications with little variation — suggesting that media statements were derived from pre-existing templates rather than independent post-incident inquiries.
A family’s testimony
Among its most harrowing documentation, the HRCP report includes testimony from Zubaida Bibi, a woman whose family lost five members in CCD encounters in a single day.
On 28 November 2025, CCD officers carried out simultaneous raids in Bahawalpur and Sahiwal, arresting eight male members of her family. She told the mission that officers entered their homes without warrants, confiscated mobile phones, cash, gold ornaments and wedding dowry items, and transported the detainees to the CCD office in Lahore.
Within twenty-four hours, five of the eight were dead — killed in separate encounters across different districts. They included three of her sons: Imran, aged 25; Irfan, aged 23; and Adnan, aged 18. Her two sons-in-law, Nazir and Hassan Jahangir, were also killed. The three remaining family members were later produced before a court and granted bail.
“They broke into our house in Bahawalpur and took everything we owned,” Zubaida Bibi told the mission. “We followed them to Lahore and begged for our sons’ release. The next morning five of them were dead.”
Her husband, Abdul Jabbar, told the commission: “My sons had no criminal record. They were working men, married with children. Twenty-two children of their family are now orphans.”
The family alleged that CCD officials initially refused to release the bodies, requiring court intervention. When the bodies were eventually returned, they were in what Zubaida Bibi described as visibly poor condition, suggesting prolonged detention and possible torture. The family said they were pressured to bury the bodies immediately, without independent post-mortem examination.
When Zubaida Bibi attempted to file a petition against the officers involved, she said the police threatened her family. “When I filed a petition to register a case against the officers involved,” she said, “the police threatened to kill the rest of my family if I did not withdraw the case.”
Systematic legal violations
The commission’s findings highlighted what it called “systematic violations” of both domestic law and Pakistan’s international human rights obligations. Under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act 2022, the Federal Investigation Agency is required to investigate every custodial death under the supervision of the National Commission for Human Rights. However, HRCP said there was no evidence that such mandatory procedures were consistently followed in the cases it examined. In one instance, the commission noted, a court had to direct the FIA to initiate an investigation rather than the agency acting on its own.
Additionally, magisterial inquiries required under Sections 174 to 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure — which mandate reporting of unnatural deaths to a magistrate and independent inquiry — were not conducted in several cases reviewed, the report said. “Magistrates possessed extensive legal powers but were often reluctant to exercise them,” legal experts told the mission.
Senior journalists and crime reporters consulted by the mission were equally frank. One crime reporter told the commission matter-of-factly: “Most CCD encounters are ‘fake’. In genuine encounters, police officers are injured or die. Here, only suspects die.” Another noted that encounters were being used to “project declining crime statistics and demonstrate administrative control,” warning that such a strategy “could produce only a temporary reduction in visible crime while entrenching violence and corruption within law enforcement.”
Institutional silence and fear
The commission expressed particular concern that neither the Punjab government nor CCD and senior police officials responded to its repeated requests for meetings during the inquiry. Despite written requests to the then Inspector General of Police, the Additional Inspector General of the CCD, the Home Secretary, and the Punjab Information Minister, HRCP received no response. A formal right-to-information request filed under the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013 also went unanswered beyond its statutory deadline.
The commission described this absence of engagement as “indicative of institutional reluctance to address serious human rights allegations” and said the “lack of transparency and accountability is itself indicative of systemic dysfunction.”
It also documented what it described as a “climate of fear among affected families” — pointing to police pressure to bury victims immediately, delays or absence of independent medical examinations, and direct threats warning relatives against pursuing legal action. “Such intimidation obstructs justice and constitutes criminal conduct,” the report stated.
Recommendations
Among its nine formal recommendations, the HRCP called for an immediate province-wide moratorium on all CCD encounter operations until comprehensive legal safeguards and independent oversight mechanisms are established. It urged that all policing operations be conducted strictly in accordance with constitutional provisions and international human rights standards, with lethal force employed “only when absolutely necessary and proportionate.”
The commission further called for all encounter-related deaths to be investigated by the FIA under NCHR supervision, by officers with no institutional connection to the Punjab Police, with findings reported publicly on a quarterly basis. It recommended the formation of an independent civilian police oversight commission with constitutional protection, budgetary autonomy, and full investigative powers. It also called for the mandatory deployment of body-worn cameras during all operations involving potential use of force, as well as mandatory compensation for the families of all individuals killed in encounter operations since February 2025 — regardless of investigation outcomes.
The report concludes with an unambiguous verdict: “The mission thus concludes that the CCD’s encounter practices constitute a systemic policy of extrajudicial killing in contravention of the law and Constitution. The scale, consistency and institutional protection surrounding these acts demonstrate a breakdown of constitutional governance in Punjab.”