Two Haryana families mourn as police encounters become a grim norm

Two separate funeral rites were conducted in Haryana this week for individuals killed in police encounters, underscoring a disturbing pattern where lethal force is increasingly viewed as a shortcut to justice. Families gathered at the respective cremation grounds, expressing grief while also confronting a legal system that often labels such deaths as "encounters" rather than extrajudicial killings. Human rights advocates have repeatedly warned that the term has become a currency of grief, used by authorities to deflect accountability. The ceremonies, attended by local residents and media, reflected both personal loss and a broader societal unease about the normalization of encounter killings in the state. Officials declined to comment on the specific cases, maintaining the official narrative that the victims were involved in criminal activity at the time of the incidents.