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Mother of man killed in ‘police encounter’ seeks fair probe

By Arshad Dogar
June 02, 2017

LAHORE

Despite the availability of sufficient evidences against a criminal gang involved in snatching of oil tankers, Kasur police are allegedly reluctant to expose the accomplices of a youth who was killed in an encounter two months back.

The investigators of Pattoki Sadr police had taken into custody three suspects, including two brothers, following the encounter. Police have allegedly been giving them clean chit one by one. 

Amna Bibi, the mother of Arsalan Shahid who was killed in an encounter, said that police were not sharing any details of the incident with her. She alleged the palms of police officials were greased and they would soon exonerate accused Adnan as well. 

 During her visit to The News office, she said she had been knocking at the doors of senior police officers for justice and inquiry on merit but to no avail. 

 “My young son has been killed. I buried him before my eyes. It is painful for an old mother”, Amna of Bund Road, Lahore, said. He had no criminal record at any police station. "Hearing of his encounter, all of a sudden while snatching an oil tanker was shocking for me," she said. 

Amna was of the view that her son had been used in the incident by some big racket but police were not exposing the prime suspects. "It is my right to know the fact. The authorities are denying me of this right," she said. 

"I demanded them to bring the actual culprits involved in the incident to justice”, Amna added. She alleged that a former SHO of Lahore was supporting the suspects and had brokered a deal after payment of hefty amount as bribe to get them exonerated.”  

Arsalan Shahid had returned from Saudi Arabia after working as a crane operator for two years. While working abroad, he had save an amount of money. In November 2016, he acquired a petrol pump on contract for two years in partnership with Imran and Adnan, sons of Khadim Hussain of Sikandria Colony, Bund Road, Lahore. 

 Arsalan had become acquaintance with Imran and Adnan while he worked at a petrol pump in Sherakot before going to Saudi Arabia. 

“My son was happy as his business was running well and bringing profit”, Amna said. Two weeks before the incident, he was very depressed. When inquired, he said that his partners were creating hurdles in the business and asking him to withdraw his share and leave. 

On March 22, she was kept in a fix for over 10 hours by Imran and Adnan and as she reached Kasur she got to know about the encounter of Arsalan.

Police said that his son along with other suspects had snatched an oil tanker of a petrol pump company as it left an oil-depot in Habibabad.  FIR registered by Alam Zeb, manager of the company, stated that the oil tanker was snatched by two suspects. It stated that when police started following the tanker, a suspect fled after abandoning the tanker. 

The helper of the tanker, Saddam Hussain, was shot dead by them. When the encounter ensued between Arsalan Shahid and police, he was asked to surrender. Instead of complying with the polices orders, he was behaving strange. SHOs of Pattoki Sadr, Chunian Sadr and Chowki in charge confirmed the claim that his behaviour was abnormal as he was drunk or intoxicated. 

They also told that he was constantly in contact with someone on phone.  Amna alleged that police had not arrested the suspect who had fled after seeing police and the suspect with whom Arsalan was in contact on phone. 

CDR showed that Adnan, partner of Arsalan, and someone on 0305-757**95 was in contact with him at the time of encounter. 

Amna has appealed to the chief justice of Lahore High Court and Sheikhupura RPO to expose the 'real culprits' who involved Arsalan into the snatching incident. 

 Habibabad Chowki in charge Zulfiqar Bhatti said that investigations were underway. Talking about investigations of the incident, he said that Adnan was in contact with Arslan during encounter but it did not mean he was an accomplice. They had taken him into custody and were investigating the matter. 

Pattoki Sadr SHO Tahir said that the investigations could not be shared. He said that if mother of Arslan had a doubt on someone, she might file an application. He had briefed her many times. Former SHO of Lahore has nothing to do with the investigations, Tahir claimed.

They would do investigations on merit, he maintained. DSP Circle Nasrullah Khan Niazi said that the investigations were underway and they could not share them.