Faisalabad 8 Encounters One Day: Two Killed, Six Injured

Faisalabad – (Web Desk) – In a deeply troubling turn of events, Faisalabad 8 encounters one day became the talk of the city after two men lost their lives and six others were wounded in back-to-back police shootouts within just 24 hours. Each incident followed a strikingly similar pattern, raising serious questions about how law enforcement handles suspects.

In almost every case, police told the same kind of story. A suspect was being taken somewhere by officers. Suddenly, unknown armed men on motorcycles showed up. Firing broke out. The suspect ended up shot — but always by his own so-called accomplices, never by police. The attackers, conveniently, always managed to escape without a trace.

The first incident involved a man named Abid Yousaf Jat. He was suspected of killing his brother and sister-in-law over a property dispute. Police said his accomplices attacked the police van near an M-4 bridge to free him. When the smoke cleared, Abid was found critically injured. He was rushed to Allied Hospital, where he died shortly after.

In the second case, Nishatabad police stopped three motorcyclists at a checkpoint on Sargodha Road. According to police, the men opened fire first. One suspect, identified as Muhammad Umair Umairi, was found shot — again, allegedly by his own fleeing companions.

Similar stories repeated across Dijkot, Batala Colony, People’s Colony, Chak Jhumra, Razaabad, and Roshanwala police stations. In each case, suspects ended up dead or injured while their mysterious accomplices always got away cleanly. One suspect, Azeem from Chamanzar Colony, was reportedly arrested for drug trafficking — yet police also claimed he was involved in 36 robbery cases, a contradiction that went unexplained.

Human rights organizations have been raising alarms about this pattern for years. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) released a fact-finding report earlier this year documenting at least 670 encounters carried out across Punjab in just eight months of 2025. Those encounters resulted in the deaths of 924 suspects. During the same period, only two police officials lost their lives.

The HRCP has called for a high-level judicial inquiry. It has directly accused the Crime Control Department (CCD) of running a deliberate policy of staged encounters to eliminate suspects outside the legal system. Critics argue that police are choosing bullets over courtrooms, bypassing due process entirely.

The people of Faisalabad, and Pakistan at large, deserve answers. A law enforcement institution that operates outside the law is not protecting citizens — it is putting them at risk.