LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday summoned a reply from the Federal Investigation Agency and other respondents while hearing a petition challenging a sharp rise in killings during alleged police encounters in Punjab.
A bench of the high court directed the parties to file their responses in the third week of January on a petition submitted by Mian Dawood Advocate and several other lawyers. The petition claims that citizens have been killed in alleged encounters across Punjab since January 2025 and estimates the death toll at around 1100.
The petitioners argued that the country’s superior judiciary has consistently ruled that alleged encounters violate constitutional and legal protections. They cited the recent killing of Advocate Zeeshan Shabbir Dhaddi in Vehari as a fresh example of what they describe as a staged encounter.
The petition states that the FIA is legally required to investigate any custodial killing within 30 days, yet no inquiries have been carried out despite repeated incidents. It asks the court to order an immediate halt to alleged encounters in Punjab and direct the agency to investigate all such deaths reported since January 2025.
The petitioners also requested strict enforcement of the Anti Custodial Killings Act 2022, arguing that the law remains largely unimplemented despite the rise in alleged extrajudicial killings.
