Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICTA) has exonerated the police of any wrongdoing in gunning down a man in the capital last week. A number of questions remain unanswered. According to the police, the man was dropped off by a double-cabin vehicle and ran towards a checkpoint. He was shot down as, apparently, policemen on the scene feared he was a suicide bomber. The IGP, Islamabad initially stated that the man had been taken out by a sharpshooter. He then retracted his statement after subsequent reports showed that the man was shot from three sides and hit by nine bullets.

There are other reasons to doubt the police version: the vehicle that dropped off the ‘suicide bomber’ got away; the body was buried hurriedly and no photograph was released to the press. Moreover, the man was alive for a while after the shooting but, according to the police, did not detonate the explosives because the triggering mechanism of his suicide jacket ‘malfunctioned’. Most importantly, the inquiry committee did not wait for Nadra to identify the ‘suicide bomber’ through his fingerprints, before arriving at the conclusion that ‘the occurrence was genuine’.

The inquiry has failed to address suspicions that the incident was staged — little is proved by the mere fact that the man was wearing a suicide jacket. A proper judicial inquiry is therefore in order. Unless the matter is fully investigated by an impartial and competent forum, it could become a chilling precedent for security personnel to shoot first and ask questions later. Such pretexts could be used to cover up extra-judicial killings and ‘encounters’ which police in the country are known to stage. Times are tough for the country’s law-enforcement agencies, but giving them unfettered and unquestioned power is dangerous. The process of the law must be followed in all cases.