Policeman martyred in botched drug raid

A police operation to apprehend a drug dealer in the Saudabad area on Friday went quite awry as a cop was martyred and the suspect initially taken into custody was freed from the law enforcers’ custody by a mob of area people.  

Aftab Ali, an official of the Saudabad police, said four plainclothed policemen on two motorcycle units were dispatched to Sahibdad Goth to arrest a wanted drug dealer named Shahzad. 

“The four cops came under heavy fire as soon as they arrived in the area. One of the four, 41-year-old Constable Bilal Hussain, was shot and injured in the attack. However, the policemen countered resiliently and eventually managed to arrest Shahzad,” said Ali. 

This was the point where matters took a turn for the worst, he added, as a mob of area residents, including women, surrounded Constable Hussain and blocked the police team’s path when they tried to leave the locality with Shahzad and the injured cop. 

The face-off lasted for a while before the mob managed to forcefully take Shahzad away from the policemen and then allowed them access to the injured Constable Hussain. 

The hapless cops could only watch as the suspect disappeared under the residents’ protection and called in a police mobile unit to transport Constable Hussain to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

The delay in medical attention, however, proved fatal for the injured policeman as doctors, citing excessive bleeding as the reason, pronounced him dead on arrival at the health facility. 

Ali said Constable Hussain was a native of Faisalabad and had been deployed with the Saudabad police for the past three years. In Karachi, Constable Hussain was residing in Sherpao Colony, Quaidabad.   

‘No protection’

An investigation into yesterday’s incident revealed that the four policemen executing the operation to arrest Shahzad violated the police force’s standard operating procedure. 

The most critical violation, which proved fatal for Constable Hussain, was that none of the four policemen was in proper combat gear. All four cops were in plainclothes and were not even wearing bulletproof jackets. 

Another issue with the operation was that the two motorcycle units with four policemen had been sent in without any sort of backup or contingency plan.  Speaking to The News, Korangi Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Noman Siddiqui contended that there was a police mobile unit on standby to assist the motorcycle squad in case of any eventuality.

However, the officer had no explanation for why the mobile unit failed to intervene when the raiding team had been cornered by area people. For that matter, there was also no reasoning proffered for why two motorcycle units with four plainclothed cops had been sent instead of a police mobile with more and properly equipped personnel.

SSP Siddiqui, though, lamented the actions of area residents who protected Shahzad and said search operations were being conducted to arrest the people responsible for Constable Hussain’s death and Shahzad’s escape.  

IGP seeks report

Sindh police chief A D Khowaja had also taken notice of the skewed operation that led to Constable Hussain’s untimely death. The IGP issued orders to the District East DIG to compile and submit a comprehensive report on the incident at the earliest.

The DIG was also told to detail the steps being taken to apprehend the drug dealer and those involved in the constable’s murder.