The inquiry committee looking into a nine-month-old girl’s killing during an exchange of fire between police and robbers has absolved the police of all responsibility for the incident, saying that there is no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the police.
The infant was shot dead and her mother wounded during an exchange of fire between police and robbers near Five Star Chowrangi in the North Nazimabad neighbourhood on October 8.
The inquiry committee’s decision has come as a huge relief for the police officials accused of killing the child. “No evidence of police wrongdoing was found,” the Central Zone police chief cited the inquiry report while talking to The News. “The victim’s family is also satisfied with the inquiry.”
DIG Nasir Aftab said that this time the police worked differently. “The investigators didn’t focus much on ballistics cross-matching because small weapons were used by both sides — police and robbers — and in such cases it would be difficult to determine whose bullet hit the victims.”
The officer said the police took the family to the crime scene to inspect it properly. “We took the family there to thoroughly inspect the crime scene with the help of the available videos, witnesses and details provided by the family,” he added.
“The video evidence, witnesses’ statements and details provided by the family suggest that the robbers’ bullets hit them, according to the direction of the robbers and the victim family’s sitting positions in the rickshaw.”
The officer said that the main purpose of taking the family to the crime scene was to find the direction of the bullets from which they came and hit them.
Initially, the injured woman’s brother had blamed the police for the incident while talking to the media outside the hospital. Other family members, however, refused to give any comment to the media. Police registered a case on the state’s behalf after the family even refused to file a complaint.
A police team led by the relevant DSP was formed to investigate the incident. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah ordered immediate arrest of the culprits.
The CM said that such incidents would not be tolerated. He sought a detailed report from the Karachi police chief. The inquiry report has now been sent to the higher authorities.
The exchange of fire had taken place near a restaurant in Block M of North Nazimabad. The Taimuria police said they had received information about citizens being mugged at gunpoint in the area, following which a motorbike squad was sent to deal with the situation.
Police said that a shootout took place between the squad and the robbers, during which the infant Anabia was killed and her 24-year-old mother Hina Rashid was injured after being hit by bullets.
The woman was travelling in a rickshaw with her daughter when they were shot. “The robbers opened fire on the police after seeing them,” Taimuria SHO Abdur Rasheed Lodhi had told The News on the day of the incident.
He said that many people had witnessed the incident, adding that it was clear that the woman and her daughter had been hit by bullets fired by the robbers.
He also said that one of the robbers had been wounded by the firing of his accomplices, but they took him away with them as they made their escape.
Police said that a female relative of the injured woman also accompanied her in the rickshaw but she remained unhurt, adding that they were residents of Surjani Town and had been on their way to Liaquatabad to visit relatives when the incident took place.
The robbers fled the scene following the shootout. The woman and her daughter were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where the infant was pronounced dead.