PTI demands judicial probe into massive deaths during Punjab CCD operations

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday voiced serious concern over reported deaths during operations conducted by Punjab’s Crime Control Department (CCD), calling for an independent judicial inquiry.

The demand follows a fact-finding report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which urged a high-level judicial probe into alleged extrajudicial killings linked to CCD operations. The CCD has rejected the report, terming allegations of staged encounters and unlawful actions as unfounded and contrary to its operational framework.

In a statement, PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram questioned the scale of fatalities reported in alleged police encounters.

“During the last eight months, as many as 670 encounters and 924 deaths have been reported. What is happening in Punjab? Is it an official state policy?” he asked.

Akram questioned why the Punjab government had remained silent on the HRCP findings and whether law enforcement was being carried out through courts or through "encounters."

“Under which law have such powers been given to the CCD?” he said, demanding a transparent and independent judicial inquiry into every reported death. He warned that public trust in institutions would continue to erode without accountability.

He further stated that no institution should be allowed to carry out extrajudicial actions under any circumstances and called on Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to clarify the powers granted to the CCD. “No individual or institution can be given authority above the law,” he added.

The CCD was formally established last year by the Punjab government to curb organised crime and safeguard life and property across the province.

However, in its recent report, the HRCP alleged that the department had adopted a “deliberate policy of staged police encounters leading to extrajudicial killings." Citing press reports, the HRCP stated that at least 670 CCD-led encounters were carried out across Punjab over an eight-month period in 2025, resulting in the deaths of 924 suspects, while only two police officials were killed during the same timeframe.

The rights body noted that the disparity in casualties—averaging more than two fatal encounters per day—along with similar operational patterns reported from different districts, pointed to what it described as an “institutionalised practice” rather than isolated incidents.

In response, the CCD said earlier this week that a comparative review of crime data for the post-May period of 2024 and 2025 showed a marked reduction in crime across Punjab, particularly in Lahore. In a press release, the department maintained that it did not pursue any policy of staged encounters and operated strictly within the Constitution of Pakistan, the Police Order 2002 and applicable criminal procedure laws.

It asserted that arrests remained the primary objective of its operations and that any use of force was governed by the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality.