Karachi police killed 197 suspected street criminals in alleged encounters between January 1 and October 25 this year. The figure comes from official police data reported by Dawn on Sunday, and it marks an 80 percent rise from 109 deaths in the same period last year.
What is an encounter? In police language, the word means a gunfight between officers and suspects. Police say they open fire only after suspects shoot at them. Rights groups, however, say many of these killings never reach a court, and they call them extrajudicial killings — people killed by the state without a trial.
197 Killed in 1,437 Encounters
The police data shows 1,437 encounters in Karachi in the first ten months of 2026. That is 71 percent more than the 840 encounters recorded in the same period last year. Along with the 197 suspects killed, another 1,426 were wounded — a 68 percent rise from 849 wounded last year.
| Figure | Jan–Oct 2026 | Same period 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Suspects killed | 197 | 109 |
| Encounters | 1,437 | 840 |
| Suspects wounded | 1,426 | 849 |
| Rise in killings | 80% | — |
One key detail is missing from the official data. It does not say how many police officers were wounded in these 1,437 encounters. That gap makes it hard to check the police claim that every shooting was a real gunfight.
HRCP Calls Deaths Extrajudicial
Asad Iqbal Butt, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), told Dawn that the commission sees these deaths as extrajudicial killings. He described the trend as an “ailment” — a sickness — that first affected the Punjab police and now seems to have spread to Karachi.
HRCP recently carried out fact-finding in Punjab, where about 1,000 suspects were shot dead in alleged encounters over eight months. Butt recalled the slang words “full fry and half fry”, used for suspects killed or wounded in encounters, and said crime did not fall when such language came into use — it went up.
His main point was simple: when a suspect is killed in an alleged encounter, it means the state has stopped trusting the courts. Real safety, he said, will come from better policing, scientific investigation and reform of the courts — not from more killings.
Police Say Encounters Genuine
Two senior police officers, who spoke without giving their names, told Dawn that all the encounters were genuine. They said the shootings took place on main roads, after victims of robbery made complaints. They said street crime rose sharply in October, though they could not point to a single reason for the rise.
After the October spike, police changed their plan. More officers joined the Shaheen Force, a special unit set up to fight street crime. The force earlier worked only in District Central, but it now works in other districts as well. Police also increased patrolling and snap-checking — quick roadside checks — in areas known for street crime. The officers said the extra patrolling led to more encounters, and they rejected claims that encounters were staged.
Karachi police chief Azad Khan did not answer Dawn’s questions, even after a week. Dawn had asked him why deaths rose so sharply, what rules apply after a suspect dies in an encounter, and how many inquiries the police had held.
Why Encounters Rose in Karachi
Karachi is facing a street-crime wave, and that pressure helps explain the rise in encounters. Karachi Police’s own report counted more than 51,000 criminal incidents in the first ten months of 2026, including 456 murders and 2,515 robberies, ARY News reported on November 2. Citizens-Police Liaison Committee data counted over 34,000 street-crime incidents in the first seven months, and 48 citizens were killed by robbers between January and August, The News reported.
Zubair Habib, chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, said the time has come to rebuild the whole criminal justice system, with police and prison reforms. He said criminals will fear the law only when they believe they will be caught and punished. He added that crime is falling in many countries because of modern technology, and Karachi police have also improved murder investigations with the help of technology.
Dawn’s editorial on October 26 made the same point about scrutiny. After seven suspects died in encounters on one day and three more the next, the editorial said such accounts “may be accurate, but cannot be accepted without scrutiny.”
The question now is what changes. HRCP wants court reform and scientific investigation. The CPLC wants a rebuilt justice system. The police say proactive policing will continue. But until the police share how many of their own officers were hurt, and how many inquiries they held, the debate over these 197 deaths will go on.
An armed clash in which police say suspects fired first and officers fired back. Rights groups say the word is often used for killings that never reach a court.
Because 197 suspects died in ten months, an 80 percent rise on last year, and HRCP says deaths without trial are extrajudicial killings. It also points to about 1,000 such deaths in Punjab over eight months.
Senior officers say all encounters were genuine and followed robbery complaints, and they link the rise to more patrolling and a bigger Shaheen Force. The police chief has not answered Dawn’s questions on rules and inquiries.
