THE killing of listed criminal Pichchi Hannan purportedly in a firefight between a joint Rab and Detective Branch team and members of Hannan's gang in the early hours of Friday morning, cannot but raise some questions in the public mind.

Hannan had been taken into custody after being wounded in a gunfight with a Rab team on June 25 and had reportedly tipped off the Rab team as to where to find members of his criminal gang. Police sources state that no sooner had the 20-man law enforcement team reached the criminals' meeting spot that they came under fire from gang members.

The exact details of the shootout and the circumstances of his killing remain unclear. It is also unclear as to whether he was hit only in the front or also in the back, and whether or not he was shot at point blank range.

The very first question that begs an answer is: how could someone in custody die in cross-fire at all? The second is that whether Hannan was killed by accident or not, he being in Rab custody at the time of his death, it's the custodian that must take responsibility for his safety and for his fate.

This was the sixth death in Rab custody since the elite squad resumed operations two months ago, and the nature of the deaths together with the fact that some had clear political overtones necessitate that the killings be fully investigated without delay.

While on remand, Hannan is said to have implicated important political leaders as his mentors, which suggests that there are many who stood to gain from his silencing. In addition, there can be no doubt that he was a potentially vast repository of information for law enforcement officials, and that it should have been imperative, from a law and order perspective, to see him alive to face trial.

It is too soon to say whether Hannan's killing was an accident, or not. But it is fair to say that a disservice has been done to the rule of law by his life being cut short without subjecting him to the due process of law.