"When armed officers from Pakistan's Crime Control Department raided Zubaida Bibi's home in Bahawalpur city in southern Punjab province last November, they took everything: mobile phones, cash, gold jewellery and her daughter's wedding dowry. They also took her sons. Within 24 hours, five members of her family were dead, killed in separate police encounters across different districts of Pakistan's Punjab the province that alone is home to more than half of the country's population."
"The HRCP documented at least 670 encounters, resulting in 924 suspected deaths between April 2025, when the unit was formed, and December 2025. The CCD, formally constituted in April last year, was mandated to combat serious and organised crime. But the HRCP describes it as a parallel police force operating with virtual impunity, linking it to a sharp spike in encounter killings that has ignited debate over the rule of law"
Punjab's Crime Control Department (CCD) was formed in April 2025 to combat serious and organised crime. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan documented at least 670 encounters and 924 suspected deaths linked to CCD operations between April and December 2025. Families report raids, seizures of property, abductions and rapid subsequent deaths in separate police encounters. Victims include young men with no criminal records, according to relatives. The HRCP describes the CCD as a parallel police force operating with virtual impunity. The spike in encounter killings has raised concerns about extrajudicial executions, threats to due process and violations of constitutional protections.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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