Daily Times

The policing profession is fraught with countless hazards, not the least of which is being killed in the line of duty. After the deaths of police and citizens, it is unquestionable that all lives matter. Former jail superintendent of Hyderabad police Aijaz Haider was killed two weeks ago when gunmen opened fire on his car near Karachi’s Pehlwan Goth area. Bahadur Khan, the deputy superintendent of police, belonging to the counter-terrorism department (CTD) of the Peshawar police, was gunned down by armed men in Peshawar. Karachi and Peshawar, the most geographically strategic cities of Pakistan, are riddled with target killings, political, sectarian and ethnic rivalries, gang wars and kidnappings for ransom, extortion and terrorism.
The killings of police officers raise questions. Uncontrolled political prejudice, unbridled corruption, an unreliable judicial system, low pay, poor self-esteem, out-of-date training, lack of resources and, not to mention, a provincial government that has clearly abandoned all pretence of trying to succeed remains apparently the core answer that the whole problem has a hopeless air of neglect.
In 2012, 133 police officers were killed. In 2013, 171 police officers were killed, the majority by suspected Taliban militants. Last year, 142 died, including the infamous counter-terrorist cop, Chaudhry Aslam, in a Taliban suicide bombing. Already this year, at least 26 officers have been killed, setting a horrifying stage for the next seven months. They were executed, assassinated and ambushed, and so they were defenceless. They were targeted for one reason and one reason alone: they were deemed worthy for death because they had donned the police uniform. This is not the time for political opportunists to rush to newsbreaks with irresponsible rhetoric about who has ‘blood’ on their hands. The blood in this case is solely in the hands of the unbalanced top police cadre and marked politicalisation of the Karachi police force. The statistics are worryingly dangerous and would be considered a national emergency in any other country not fighting an all-out war.
What can we learn about the people who really do kill policemen? Most often, police killings occurred when officers attempted to question or arrest the eventual killers. Every police officer killer in 2013 and 2014 was male, half were involved in crimes just before murdering the officers and half had affiliations with political parties. Almost all used guns to kill the officers and quite a few of the killers died during their altercations, either by suicide or at the hands of other police officers. The ages of the killers spanned from 15 to 48, with three-quarters of the total between 18 and 37. Unlike mass murderers, who usually plan their murder well in advance, men who killed police officers usually do so on contract.
On the basis of police per capita, Pakistan has around 354,221 police in uniform. Police forces around the world are commonly measured as the number of police per 100,000 people, and Pakistan has 222. Scotland, for example, has around 330 officers per 100,000, South Africa had 327, the US had 238 officers and Canada had 201, according to 2011 data. Not surprisingly, some studies suggest that adding police officers reduces crime. A nation with a larger proportion of police officers is somewhat more likely to have a lower crime rate. But perhaps the question that should be asked about Pakistan’s police officers is whether there are other reasons for their target killings in the first place.
Who would not share the shock and grief caused by these killings? People are absolutely horrified by the cold-blooded killings of police officers. National events of great significance have an influence on some of these things. Apparently, these atrocities have appeared in the wake of the National Action Plan (NAP) and tensions over the use of formidable force by law enforcement agencies in several high-profile cases. It is a grim reminder that police officers who serve and protect us every day do so knowing that even the most innocent moment or encounter can explode into life-threatening danger. The targeting of police officers will not, and cannot, be tolerated. However, in the search for solutions, it must not be lost on anyone that working as a police officer has become the most dangerous job in Pakistan. People should mourn the senseless death of police officers and recognise that solutions to the violence are complex and will not be solved quickly but they must be solved. In a nation where criminals are so well-armed, officers know that it is frighteningly easy for a bad actor to carry deadly firepower.
Unfortunately, these facts are being lost in the furore. No one wants to fall deeper into a grotesque cycle of grievance and vengeance where all that grows is blindness and hate. It is time for a societal deep breath. It is one thing to question motives and to push for objective federal investigation teams into the shootings of police officers; it is quite another to talk about the tactics and the ease with which killers roam the streets in Karachi and Peshawar and commit similar heinous murders of police officers almost at will. This may appear so simple but no words are strong enough to condemn the brazen assassination of police officers in Pakistan. Ironic as it is, it is a reprehensible, cowardly act by criminals who are still at large.
We live at a time where we have an especially challenging relationship between law enforcement and naked violence on the streets. Law enforcement morale is at an all-time low as uniformed officers are being killed, risking their lives to protect civilians. It has to be stressed that effective crime prevention involves a judicious combination of both a non-discriminatory operation against all identified terrorists and apolitical strategy on a continuous basis. The concept of ‘total defence’ as a total strategy or comprehensive security strategy for the defence and security of the country is of paramount importance now.

The writer is a professor of Psychiatry and consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in the UK. He can be contacted at fawad_shifa@yahoo.com