From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Police in this city have been bestowed with the use of force in the name of “maintaining law and order, peace and safety”.
A large amount of resources and energy is pumped into it, “building the capacity to use force” including “excessive use of force”.
However, unfortunately, not that much is invested in teaching them to show maximum restraints. Frequent incidents of “excessive use of force” tainted the image of the force and led to losing its credibility among the people. This should be stopped. However, a contradiction has been noticed. It is considered a means of creating “deterrence”.
In reality, it promoted and created a realization of “nuisance value” in police rank and file. This has happened with the Dolphin Squad, a specialised patrolling wing built by the Punjab government to promote 15 emergency call response mechanisms and promote community policing over the years.
A former DIG, Dr Haider Ashraf, under whose command the squad was launched in Lahore, had said that the dolphin, the animal, was considered to be a symbol of love and affection. It was introduced to promote community policing, he had said. However, it has failed to live up to its purpose and mission.
In many instances, it has been accused of resorting to opening fire when it could have exercised restraint. In the last four years, at least seven such incidents in which innocent people had been shot at by the squad have been reported.
In a most recent incident, a citizen who called 15 for police help during a dispute in the Township area was shot at by an official of the Dolphin Squad. In another instance, a Dolphin Squad team had shot at a shopkeeper in Abdali Chowk, Islampura.
