Every day in the morning I start the day with news about the city of Karachi. Sometimes the news are straightforward, but at times you have to look behind the news to get to the truth about what is being conveyed.
Now for sometime I have noticed that where once the news informed us of ordinary citizens being looted and even killed by those who were attempting to rob them of their mobiles, motorcycles, and even cars, there are now reports of almost daily encounters between the law enforcing agencies and the robbers, and they are being shot dead and injured with regularity.
It seems that the Karachi police have decided to take the bull by the horns and confront criminals with deadly force. This is not something new in the world of law enforcement and has been tried in several countries. The figures speak for themselves. In the first six months there were 2,214 police encounters as compared with 1,630 in the same period the year before. The suspects who got killed were 200 as compared with 136 in the previous year. Only this week 11 suspects were killed in three days.
As far as the hotspots for encounters are concerned, district central and district west seem to be the focus right now. In district central in April, according to a performance report, there were 56 encounters resulting in the killing of 11 suspects and arrest of 57.
There are areas in Karachi where criminals roam freely, and people of these areas are worst affected. District West tops the list and Gulshan-e-Maymar and Surjani Town are pinpointed as the worst affected areas and at the top of the list for armed motorcycle robberies. Looking at the figures, the highest number of encounters took place against the phone snatchers. Also, the centre of action has also changed. Earlier, encounters used to take place in Gadap, Malir and Lyari, but they have now shifted to Surjani, North Karachi and Sohrab Goth because these are the areas where the criminals hide. This is why Ahsanabad area sees so much action. It is the new buffer zone as Lyari was 10 years ago. It was here where the doctor who had committed suicide with his entire family had been robbed of his salary which was perhaps the last straw.
Not all police encounters are really genuine. Some are fake invented to protect those involved in them. Two examples come to my mind. In April 2026, a Sanghar court found that police had staged an encounter in which one Ayaz was shot and lost his leg. The DSP was ordered to lodge an FIR against all the cops involved and pay for artificial leg. In another case a Gulshan-e-Iqbal magistrate had rejected remand of two injured suspects and ordered an ASP-level officer to investigate if excessive force had been used. It seems that the law allows FIR against law enforcers, but conviction requires witnesses who seldom come out to testify against police officers concerned. Sometimes lack of witnesses are also a result of the attitude of witnesses. People living in crime infested areas are fed up with the daily violence and dacoities and mobile snatching and refuse to testify even though they were witnesses to these encounters.
Police encounters are not uncommon in the world nor is police brutality. Brazil police are known as the most brutal police force in the world. A record high number of 6,160 people were killed by the Brazilian police in 2019. In comparison with Karachi this is a very high number. The encounters that top the list worldwide are anti-drug encounters in the Philippines. There the government acknowledged 6,248 deaths. NGOs challenge this figure and put the casualties at 12,000 to 30,000. The office of the president listed 20,322 deaths from July to November. The former president of the Philippines is presently in jail awaiting trial by the International Criminal Court.
Whatever the circumstances police encounters are a violation of law and human rights and demonstrate that unchecked lawlessness leads to the crumbling of the justice system with on the spot judgement and execution that pushes civilization back to the Stone Age and undermines systems built and nurtured over centuries.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is a well-known columnist