ON an orthopaedic ward’s bed, Kashif was writhing in pain. With pensive expressions on her face, his mother sat near the bed. One of Kashif’s legs had to be amputated following bullet injuries he suffered in an ‘encounter’ with police — all while he was in custody.

“I just want to go home,” pleaded a sobbing Zarina,“ adding “jo khuda ko manzoor tha ho gaya [what had to happen has happened].”

Her son was a suspect in a crime being handled by Cantonment police.

“They shot at me twice in the leg inside Cantonment police station on March 3,” alleged Kashif.

A resident of Karachi, Kashif fell victim to a fake encounter staged by police. He has since been granted bail and returned to his hometown. Around half a dozen more such suspects were admitted to Liaquat University Hospital.

‘Half fry’ means a suspect is injured, ‘full fry’ means he is killed in custody

A routine matter

Such encounters have become a norm. In the wee hours of a day police spokesman drops a message in the department’s WhatsApp group, informing about a ‘police muqabla’ in which a suspect has been rounded up. The message carries a photo of the suspect lying somewhere with a pistol in his hand.

Dawn’s investigations reveal policing in Hyderabad has been “outsourced” and the brutal regime of ‘half fry and full fry’ reigns supreme. While half fry entails loss of limbs, ‘full fry’ refers to the suspect’s custodial killing. However chilling it may be, such policing wins accolades for police from trader bodies, social workers, etc.

Private persons and sacked or former low-grade policemen perform the “job” (inflicting injury upon suspects) at the behest of SHOs.

“Every SSP knows private persons work alongside SHOs,” confided a CIA police source. “[These] men collect bribe to allow sale of mainpuri, gutka, gambling, prostitution, etc despite Sindh IGP’s directives to eradicate these crime. Some of them are so influential they can even get SHOs posted,” claimed the source, seeking anonymity.

Kashif lands in custody

“I had come to Hyderabad to seek my national identity card,” said Kashif. According to him, Sub-Inspector Ibrahim Mallah picked him up from Liaquat Colony. SI Mallah, he believed, acted at the behest of one Naqash with whom Kashif had a fight in 2014.

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“Naqash got me booked in two cases in which I was acquitted,” said Kashif. But Mallah got him re-arrested in March. “I am not aware of Kashif’s case nor was I connected with this,” said SI Mallah while giving his viewpoint to Dawn.

“From CIA Centre I was taken to Cantonment police station where I was shot in the leg. As I fell, I was shot again,” he said.

Ms Zarina said Kashif’s leg could have been saved had they shifted him to a hospital on time.

The ‘lucky’ one

Unlike Kashif, suspect Hashim Minas Rajput was a bit lucky as he didn’t meet the same fate, though he too had a bullet wound in his leg.

“I was returning from Jamshoro when police stopped me and took me to the CIA centre. I was handed over to the Cantonment police and then the Fort police on March 29. Fort police shot me in the leg and a case of encounter was registered,” alleged Hashim, with an external fixator tied to his leg for fracture.

Bashir Buledi, also admitted to the orthopaedic ward, claimed, “I was picked up from Bhit Shah and kept in custody for two days before Fort police came up with an encounter’s claim.” SHO Fort Anwar Khanzada didn’t respond when Dawn approached him for comment. Such tales are countless.

Such encounters were usually reported in areas of police stations headed by Tahir Mughal, Anwar Khanzada, Rana Razaq, Nisar Shah, Niaz Panhwar, Ayaz Bughio as SHOs at Hali Road, Hussainabad, Fort, Pinyari, Site, Phulelli, A & B-sections Latifabad etc.

“Many of these SHOs have been grabbing postings without fail. They are all patronised either by MPAs, ministers or powerful ‘houses’,” claimed a serving police source. Some are known as Bajari group SHOs.

Some of the private persons or sacked policemen, who rule the roost at various police stations, include Jehanzeb, Hanan, Ali Rana, Shahrukh, Babar Kala, Sunny and Khalid alias Kana.

Former constables Asad, Irshad, Shahnawaz, Adnan, Usman, Haroon and Imran are also actively working with SHOs reportedly. No SHOs or their linchpin have faced any action for this illegal practice yet.

In a recent video, Jehanzeb could be spotted while travelling to Tando Allahyar to pick up a suspect — later a half-fry victim — from Khanzada community.

“Bullet injuries are caused on right leg as police fear that injury on vessels in left leg can be detrimental from cardiac point of view,” disclosed an ex-SHO privy to these encounters.

An upsurge in such encounters was seen since July 2022 when Amjad Shaikh headed Hyderabad as SSP till May. The practice continues as police boss Sajid Sadozai started off from where his predecessor had left in May. So far, 12 shoot-outs have taken place. Sajid chose not to respond to questions whatsapped to him.

Amjad opened his “account” with killing of four suspects in October 2022 after a gang looted Rs150 million from a bank van. “Suspects were arrested and police recovered Rs51m but killed them in a [staged] shoot-out later,” informed a policeman.

Amjad completed century of ‘encounters’ in his 10 months stint, surpassing the-then SSP Irfan Baloch’s one year shoot-outs’ figure. Irfan served from Nov 2014 to July 2017 when roughly 241 encounters were reported. Amjad’s tally is 132 in which 131 suspects were injured and 18 were killed, according to figures obtained by Dawn.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2023