The life of an Indian policeman is challenging, to say the least. 479 died on duty between 2015 and 2016, with over a hundred from Uttar Pradesh alone. The hazards they face are many – from terrorists to rioters, Maoist insurgents, and armed gangs. How do the police respond when their lives are at immediate risk?
With deadly efficiency, or so the story goes.
Ten suspected members of the banned terrorist outfit SIMI were killed recently, after a jailbreak that left one guard dead. Within five hours of their escape, they were all gunned down. Soon, unverified videos emerged showing armed men executing prone bodies in cold blood. It looked like a war scene, and the police claim it was similar to one – they were fired upon, and so, they fired back.
The police encounter is a situation where the cops find themselves in a battle against the bad guys – literally. It happens in a variety of scenarios – from pursuits to patrols – and the outcome is usually the same: all the attackers are killed, lined up and displayed as a message.
Of the hundreds of encounter deaths incurred in the last five years, few to none have had survivors. It raises the question, similar to a famous thought experiment – if the police killed an armed suspect in a forest, and no one is around to see it, was the suspect still armed?
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