Pakistan’s Punjab police Crime Control Department (CCD) killed 924 people in 670 encounters from April to December 2025. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) published a report calling these extrajudicial killings “systemic” and illegal. The CCD was created to fight serious crime but now faces accusations of acting like an unchecked, parallel police force. One family in Bahawalpur city lost five members in separate police encounters after officers raided their home last November. Zubaida Bibi said police took her sons and later killed them, despite no criminal records, according to her husband Abdul Jabbar. HRCP director Farah Zia said Punjab’s police culture has long tolerated torture and encounter killings. The new CCD formed under Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif quickly doubled encounter deaths compared to previous years. Lahore saw the most killings with 139, followed by Faisalabad and Sheikhupura. Most victims were accused of robbery, narcotics, or murder. Police reports often contain nearly identical wording describing suspects firing first, forcing officers to respond in self-defense, suggesting copy-paste reporting. Human rights lawyer Asad Jamal said the approach reflects a political choice to lower crime by any means, including extrajudicial killings. Punjab police claim crime dropped over 60%, but HRCP says the law and rights must be respected. Families were reportedly forced to bury the dead quickly without postmortems. Former officials blame slow courts and political pressure for encouraging illegal killings. HRCP’s decade-long data shows a sharp rise in such killings since 2024. Legal experts warn state-sanctioned violence threatens rights and risks targeting innocent people under the guise of crime control.