SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2288die from police torture each year (see Section 1.c.). The HRCP estimated that 23persons were killed in police custody or police encounters during the year. Police officialsinsist that these deaths occurred during attempts to escape or resist arrest.For example, in October police killed a suspect who reportedly attempted to resistarrest; there were no investigations of the incident during the year. In addition tokilling suspects to prevent them from implicating the police in court, police reportedlykilled suspected criminals to circumvent or overcome insufficient evidence, witnessintimidation, judicial corruption, and sometimes political pressure. Police professionalismis low. The police view the killings of criminal suspects as appropriategiven the lack of effective action by the judiciary against criminals. The judiciaryon the other hand, faults the police for presenting weak cases that do not stand upin court.According to a press report, Shaheen Akhtar, a 15-year-old rape victim chargedwith adultery was kept fettered in a hospital despite being diagnosed with advancedtuberculosis; Akhtar died in May (see Section 1.c.).Police officers occasionally are transferred or briefly suspended for involvement inextrajudicial killings. However, court-ordered inquiries into these killings have resultedin few trials and no convictions. In February two police inspectors who werecharged with killing a member of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) in custodywere denied bail after the Sindh High Court determined that they had falsifiedprecinct records and appeared to have committed the crime. Punjabi police killedTahir Prince in February 1999; after his mother filed a writ, the Lahore High Courtordered a case registered against two police officers, one of whom was dismissedmid-year on charges of corruption. Tahir Prince’s family then accepted financialcompensation and dropped the case against the two officers. In general police continuedto commit such killings with impunity.The police and security forces were responsible for the deaths of a number of individualsassociated with political or terrorist groups. A committee of inquiry was establishedto look into the death of Pakistan Muslim League youth wing leaderQasim Khan, who died while in the custody of the Peshawar police in July 1999.However, despite requests from human rights activists, the committee did not publishits findings, and the officer who allegedly was involved in the killing retainedhis position.The Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), an urban Sindh-based political partythat in the past demonstrated a willingness to use violence to further its aims,claimed that the police specifically targeted its adherents for extrajudicial killings.Altaf Hussain established the MQM in 1984 to promote the rights of Mohajirs, thedescendants of Urdu-speaking Muslims who migrated from India to Pakistan followingpartition in 1947. Elements of the group became involved in extortion andother forms of racketeering, and the party split into theMQM-Altaf—the original group headed by Altaf Hussain, a large breakawaygroup (MQM-Haqiqi), and a few smaller factions. The MQM-Altaf, in part becauseof its efficient organization and willingness to use violence, became the dominantpolitical party in Karachi and Hyderabad, and sent several moderate and nonviolentleaders to the now suspended Parliament and the Sindh provincial assembly. Becauseof its past links, the MQM-Altaf has antagonized followers, suffered violentbreakaways, and continually been at odds with successive governments. In a 1999report, the MQM listed 10 persons, mostly MQM activists, that it alleged werekilled extrajudicially by Karachi police between October 1998 and March 1999.Since the coup, reports of extrajudicial killings of MQM activists have droppedsharply. However, on September 13, two MQM activists were killed, probably bygovernment forces.Politically motivated and sectarian violence continued. After the coup, there wasrelative quiet until the traditionally tense Shi’a holiday of Muharram in April, whena number of violent incidents occurred between rival Sunni and Shi’a groups. Onenewspaper reported that an estimated 300 persons had died in sectarian attacks betweenlate 1997 and 1999 (see Sections 2.c. and 5). Shi’a activists reported in Aprilthat approximately 40 Shi’as have been killed since the coup. According to governmentfigures, 915 persons, 64 percent of them Shi’as, have died as a result of sectarianviolence since 1994. On April 7, unknown gunmen in Karachi killed a Shi’alawyer and the Secretary General of Tehrek-i-Jafaria Pakistan (TJP), his son, andhis driver; the assailants may have been members of the extremist Sipah-e-SahabaPakistan (SSP—see Section 5). On April 12, in the worst incident of sectarian violencesince the coup, unknown assailants attacked a Shi’a religious congregation inRawalpindi with grenades and bullets, killing 19 persons and injuring 37 others. Policearrested several Sunni Muslims following the attack. In April an unknown gunmankilled 15 Shi’a Muslims in the village of Mallow Wali. On May 11, unknownVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00132 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.036 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1