A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court alleging that the Crime Control Department (CCD) has been using staged encounters to declare individuals as criminals, resulting in numerous deaths.
According to the petition, approximately 1,100 people have been killed in such police actions since the implementation of the CCD.
The case that recently shocked the nation involves the alleged killing of five close relatives from the same family in multiple ‘encounters’ carried out on the same day across different districts of Punjab.
According to details submitted in court, the CCD Lahore allegedly arrested three brothers. Imran, Irfan, and Adnan, along with their cousins and brother-in-law Hassan Jahangir, from Sahiwal in September 2025.
The youth were reportedly brought to Lahore and then transferred to CCD units in five different districts, including Chiniot, Faisalabad, Narowal, and Hafizabad, where they were allegedly killed in staged encounters.
The victims’ families, who repeatedly visited CCD and FIA offices near Sherpao Pul and Regal Chowk in Lahore seeking information, were reportedly ignored.
Only after taking legal action through advocate Aftab Bajwa were the families able to locate the bodies of their loved ones. Court orders eventually led to the handover of two-month-old unclaimed bodies, buried like unclaimed dead, to the families.
Zubaida Bibi, a resident of Bahawalpur, filed the petition. Representing her in court, Advocate Aftab Bajwa said that on the nights of September 25–26, 2025, a large group of CCD officials allegedly raided her house, harassed women and children, and looted valuables including cash and gold jewelry.
Bajwa told the court that the arrested men were not involved in any serious criminal case and had no prior record.
He alleged that they were killed in custody at the behest of private individuals with personal enmity against the family. Police reportedly registered multiple FIRs under Sections 302 (murder), 324 (attempted murder), and 353 (assault on public servant) to justify the killings as legitimate shootouts.
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The petition requests registration of a case under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act 2022 against CCD chief Sohail Zafar Chattha and the SPs of the districts where the encounters took place.
The victims’ deaths have left 22 children orphaned, intensifying public outrage over alleged extrajudicial killings by the police. The Lahore High Court is now hearing the case, which has raised serious questions about accountability within the CCD.
