A Station House Officer (SHO) in Karachi has been suspended after an audio recording allegedly featuring him apologising to a suspected drug dealer, identified as Kashif alias Dada, surfaced on social media.
The audio clip went viral on November 5, reportedly featuring the SHO and a police constable engaged in what officials described as an “unauthorised and compromising conversation” with a known drug peddler.
The recording allegedly captures the police officer seeking an apology from the drug dealer.
However, the authenticity of the audio has yet to be independently verified.
In a separate development, Karachi police have killed 197 suspected street criminals in alleged encounters over the past 10 months.
The rise in police encounters has raised concerns among human rights groups, which have described some of the incidents as extrajudicial killings.
However, senior police officials have maintained that the encounters between suspected criminals and law enforcement personnel were genuine.
According to official data, Karachi police conducted 1,437 encounters between January 1 and October 25 this year. However, the figures do not specify how many law enforcement personnel were injured during these incidents.
