Punjab police homicide unit: Reforming the criminal justice system

Police forensic expert gathers evidence from the body of a murder victim at a crime scene in Lahore. — Reuters

A policeman looks into a mosque where colleagues are collecting evidence to solve a murder in Lahore. — Reuters

A forensic expert gathers evidence from a bloodied wall at a crime scene in Lahore. — Reuters

Police remove a body after forensic experts collected evidence from a murder crime scene in Lahore. — Reuters

Police forensic expert gathers evidence from the body of a murder victim at a crime scene in Lahore. — Reuters

A policeman looks into a mosque where colleagues are collecting evidence to solve a murder in Lahore. — Reuters

LAHORE: Pakistan's first specialised homicide investigation unit launched by Punjab police last month comprises a 478-strong unit which pairs veterans with university graduates who have had an extra year of training in forensics, report writing and interrogation.
Reforming the crumbling criminal justice system and the cash-starved, poorly-trained police force is vital to stability in the country.
Read: CSI Lahore: US forensics big shot comes home to help Pakistan
This is partly because antiquated courts rely heavily on witness testimony and evidence found at the scene, and both are easily manipulated, say police and lawyers.
Inspector General Police Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera hopes the new unit will help put an end to the manipulation.
"There was some pressure to plant evidence in the past, and the courts did not really want to rely on it," says Sukhera. "With this new unit there is no need."
In most murder cases, victims' families say they know who the killer is, police say. Yet, few officers are trained to collect evidence to prove it and sometimes make it up.
A dozen senior prosecutors and police told Reuters they coached witnesses and planted evidence, but only to incriminate the guilty.
"We get the right guy by the wrong methods," one senior officer in the eastern city of Lahore told Reuters, requesting anonymity.
Without a protection program, witnesses are afraid to testify, leaving police with little choice but to coach them and plant evidence, says Hassan Abbas, author of "The Taliban Revival" and a prominent expert on police reforms.
"You can't ask someone to risk everything if they are not convinced it will make any difference," he says.
Abbas argued that the new homicide unit was not enough.
"Basic problems like lack of police training, political interference and lack of funding are still not being addressed," he says. "Announcing new units is nice for the media, but the basics are still neglected."
Another challenge for police is that Islamic laws allowing victims' families to pardon killers in exchange for cash mean the guilty can go free and the innocent may be blackmailed.
"People are losing faith in the justice system day by day," says defence lawyer Raja Ghaneem Khan.
He recently got three men acquitted after a judge ruled evidence was planted and the men were in custody when the murder occurred. They were on death row for five years before being cleared.
'Old wine, new bottles'
At a mosque in Lahore last month, a team from the new homicide unit carefully photographed a corpse sprawled in the library, a bloody axe wedged in its back.
"In the old days, they would have just moved the body immediately and vital evidence would have been lost," says Umar Riaz, head of the new unit's Lahore section.
More than 400 homicide cases have been registered in the last month and by mid-October, the unit was close to completing one hundred. So far, 24 people have appeared in court based on its findings.
But funding and training gaps remain ─ the new homicide squad does not have a budget.
Officers should receive Rs50,000 per investigation to cover the cost of transport, equipment and forensic tests. The senior police official in Lahore says the stipend had been paid in around 40-45 per cent of cases.
One newly appointed homicide officer ─ a veteran stationed outside Lahore ─ says he only had 25 days of extra training and had not been paid investigation expenses.
"We are in favour of this initiative, but if they don't do it properly, it will just be old wine in new bottles," warned another Punjabi policeman, himself a seasoned investigator.
Problems and solutions
A tiny national police budget leaves little cash for training and witness protection.
"In Pakistan, most of the time, the natural witnesses don't come forward. Even where the natural witnesses are available, police have to guide them on how they are supposed to testify," says Sukhera.
One method several police officers say was used in Punjab to bolster their case was to buy a gun, shoot a few rounds then place the bullets at a crime scene. When the suspect is captured, the gun is planted.
The Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA), which carries out tests for police, says around 70pc of guns taken from suspects match bullets from crime scenes.
The senior police officer says the match rate from genuine evidence is closer to 5pc.
Even if the new unit is successful in Punjab, some killers will still walk free under Islamic laws passed in 1990 that allow pardons for cash.
Last year, courts in Punjab ─ Pakistan's biggest and richest province ─ issued judgements on 3,543 murder cases.
Of this number, 23pc were guilty verdicts, 30pc were acquittals and 46pc ended in a deal.
Also read: Punjab police building team to solve murder cases
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CSI Lahore: US forensics big shot comes home to help Pakistan

A member of the crime scene investigation unit takes notes as he stands beside the owners of a home that was robbed in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

A member of the crime scene investigation unit collects fingerprints at a home that has been robbed in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters
Mohammad Ashraf Tahir, Director General of Punjab Forensic Science Agency, talks to Reuters journalists at his office in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

A member of the crime scene investigation unit takes notes as he stands beside the owners of a home that was robbed in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

A member of the crime scene investigation unit collects fingerprints at a home that has been robbed in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters
LAHORE: As one of America's top forensic scientists, Mohammad Tahir uncovered evidence that helped jail boxer Mike Tyson for rape, convict serial killer John Wayne Gacy and clear doctor Sam Sheppard of murdering his wife.
Then Tahir took on his toughest assignment yet, applying his skills in Pakistan, a poor nation of 180 million people beset by crime and militancy.
But catching criminals is not Tahir's biggest problem. It's working with the country's antiquated criminal justice system.

The very notion of producing evidence is a newfangled concept for many involved in law enforcement in Pakistan.
Cases often rely on witnesses who are easily bribed or intimidated. Terrorism and murder suspects usually walk free.

A police officer fills out a form for evidence to be tested at the evidence-receiving unit at Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

So Tahir, a softly spoken man whose passions are reading and gardening, set out on a quest: to promote forensic science.
“Physical evidence does not lie, it does not perjure itself as humans do,” said the dapper 65-year-old. “It is a silent witness ... We make it speak in a court of law.”
Tahir, a dual Pakistani and US citizen, has his own forensics lab in the Unites States. He spent 36 years working with US police and helped write the FBI handbook on forensics.

Forensic scientists analyse samples in the Toxicology department at Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

In 2008, with militant attacks rising in Pakistan, Punjab's chief minister called Tahir and asked for help: to design a new $31 million forensics lab in the city of Lahore, handpick its scientists and try to enforce new standards of crime solving.
The lab was finished in 2012 and at first, business was slow. But now the lab, which is funded by Punjab state, takes around 600 cases a day, Tahir said.

Members of the crime scene investigation unit collect evidence from a possible arson attack at a shoe factory that burned down in Lahore January 14, 2015. — Reuters

It could easily handle twice that if more police start sending in evidence or suspects.
“The police are not educated, they don't know our capabilities. We have to teach them,” he said.
Problems with police

The gleaming new lab quickly discovered only a tiny fraction of police knew how to secure crime scenes and collect evidence.
DNA samples were mouldy.

A police officer hands over a pistol used during a crime to the evidence receiving unit at Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

Guns arrived for analysis, smeared with officers' fingerprints.
“If garbage comes in, garbage goes out,” explained one scientist at the lab during a recent Reuters visit, as his masked colleague unwrapped a bone from a woman's body found in a canal.

A police officer talks to a member of the evidence receiving unit at Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

To change that, Tahir set up localised crime scene investigation units and began training police.
Now the DNA department says around half the samples they receive are packaged correctly.
“They are getting better,” Tahir said.

A member of the crime scene investigation unit from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency searches for equipment to use at a possible arson attack at a shoe factory that burned down in Lahore January 14, 2015. — Reuters

So far 3,100 police out of a force of 185,000 have been trained.
But progress is slow. Punjab Police Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhera said police still secure “very few” crime scenes.

scenes.

Forensic scientists practise classifying fingerprints at the fingerprint department at Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

One detective was even found fingerprinting himself instead of the suspects for dozens of cases, an official working with the judicial system said.
Some police try to game the system. A prosecutor and a scientist told Reuters that police sometimes plant bullets at the crime scene and the gun on the suspect.
Courts usually treat police as unreliable. Any confession made to them is legally inadmissible because suspects are frequently tortured. Police argue they are becoming better at playing by the book.

A forensic scientist analyses samples in the narcotics department at Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

“It used to be, you can say, a quick method of getting disclosure from the accused,” said Sukhera. “(But now) I think very rarely the police torture.” Tahir has banned police from entering the lab to make sure they do not interfere with the process.
When Reuters visited the lab, police waited patiently in the basement, some clutching white cloth packages sealed with twine and red wax.

A police officer shows bottles of suspected homemade alcohol as he waits at the evidence-receiving unit in Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

A dozen of them held bottles that were to be tested for alcohol, which is illegal in Pakistan. One had brought a pistol. Another held a box of body parts.
Court crisis

Once the lab makes a report, it goes to the prosecutor. But judges, lawyers and witnesses are often threatened or killed. Courts have a backlog of more than a million cases.
As a result, conviction rates are low. Anti-terrorism courts convict around a third of cases, about half of those are overturned on appeal.

A forensic scientist carries samples to analyse in the Toxicology department at Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

Fewer than a quarter of murder suspects are convicted.
But Tahir said that the lab has had some notable successes. One man confessed he poisoned his Scottish wife thanks to evidence from the toxicology and polygraph departments.
Two men claimed police planted suicide vests on them, but they were jailed after the lab's computer section recovered deleted videos from their phones confirming their wrongdoing.

A forensic scientist compares bullets at the ballistics department at Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

A man who raped and killed a 5-year-old in a mosque was identified by his DNA; seven other suspects were freed.

A forensic scientist analyses samples in the DNA and Serology department at Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore January 13, 2015. — Reuters

“On one hand, you have exonerated a man,” said Tahir. “On the other you have found someone who has actually committed a crime. Nothing makes you happier.”
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Punjab police building team to solve murder cases

ASIF CHAUDHRY

LAHORE: The Punjab police have shortlisted more than 2,000 “brilliant homicide investigation officers” (IOs) -- inspectors and sub-inspectors -- to solve murder cases after clearance from the Special Branch about their spotless career.
The Punjab police had selected and dispatched a list of police officers to the Special Branch on the basis of integrity, excellent investigative skills, knowledge of criminal law and prosecution, science graduation, or at least Inter with science or Matric with science, conduct with public etc.
The SB gave a nod to field them certifying that there was not a single criminal case or corruption charges against these IOs in the official record, a senior official told Dawn. He said the Punjab police initially chose 500 out of these 2,000 investigators due to scarcity of resources for imparting them training on modern pattern set under the terms of reference.
The first batch of these 500 fully-trained IOs is likely to be dispatched in the first week of June to the districts for their filed posting.
The initiative was taken under a newly launched scheme -- Specialised Homicide Investigation Units (SHIUs) -- in all three field formations across the province to streamline the ignored and core police function of investigation wing, he said.
The official said the idea of SHIUs was floated when many people complained to the IGP in open courts that the detectives could not trace the murder cases particularly the blind murders even after a lapse of 10 to 15 years, raising doubts about the ability of the police officials concerned.
They further told him that the parliamentarians, politicians, bureaucrats and other influential people in the respective districts had been playing a ‘dirty role’ in the transfer and posting of the IOs of the murder cases.
The IGP further came to know that only the Capital City Police Lahore was having some kind of separation of investigation at the police station level, while in other districts no such practice was being followed. And this is one of the major reasons behind the delay in justice to the victims’ families.
Quoting official figures about the burden of crime against people, he said a total of 5,016 cases of murder, attempted murder and hurt were lodged all over the province from January to March this year. Of them, he said, 1,028 murder cases were registered under section 302 of PPC.
Of the total cases, the investigation of 1,879 cases including 473 murder cases was yet to be completed, he said.
The Punjab police introduced reforms by launching SHIUs at the district level to separately investigate the murder cases registered under sections 302, 316, 319, 320, 322 PPC. Under the scheme the posting of IOs would not be transferable before a period of two years which would be extendable on the sole discretion of the IGP.
The official said in order to take interference to zero level, the IGP had issued instructions to the district police officers to create a pool of honest officials at the district level according to the SHIU guidelines. At present, an IO is on average handling more than 70 cases of various crimes while under the new scheme, each IO of this unit would not investigate more than 20 cases a year, he said.
The total number of IOs in the unit would be equal to the annual average of total number of murder cases registered in the last three years and divided by 20. “The units shall be responsible to the SP Investigation of the respective division. The office of sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) shall act as headquarters of SHIU.”
About the transport and logistic support, he said an ASI/HC and three constables would assist every IO of the SHIU besides crime scene investigation (CSI) staff at the crime scene. They would be provided designated transport and other logistics in order to facilitate them for timely completion of the cases.
Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2015