Man dies as Empress Market anti-encroachment drive turns violent

A 30-year-old man died when an anti-encroachment operation around Saddar’s Empress Market turned violent on Thursday evening.

A team of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC’s) Anti-Encroachment Cell (AEC), along with a heavy contingent of police, reached the historical market, to remove encroachments from along the roads.

During the operation, encroachers pelted the AEC team and policemen with stones to stop the drive and ransacked police vehicles.

Police baton-charged the encroachers and tried to arrest the suspects involved in creating the law and order situation when a 30-year-old man fainted during a scuffle between the two sides.

The man was taken to Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, where doctors pronounced him dead.

The deceased was identified as Maroof, son of Haji Mehboob.

Later, shop owners placed the dead body on a road along the Empress Market and staged a protest demonstration against police, who, according to them, were responsible for his death.

Protesters blocked both tracks of the Empress Market for vehicular traffic, which causes a mess on the roads leading towrds MA Jinnah Road and Sharea Faisal.

Saddar Division SP Tauqeer Muhammad Naeem told The News that a postmortem on Maroof was conducted at the CHK and a medico-legal examiner suggested that he might have died of cardiac arrest.

He said a team, including two sub-divisional police officers (SDPOs) and three SHOs, had been formed to probe the riots during the anti-encroachment drive, as well as the death of the protester.

He added that the committee had been tasked with identify people responsible for the riots and look into the role of police officials who took part in the operation.

He added that four policemen, Saeed, Sahid, Tahir and Asim, sustained minor injuries during the operation, but they all were discharged from the hospital after first aid.

SP Naeem said the cause of Maroof’s death would only be confirmed on the arrival of the postmortem repot.

He added that doctors at the CHK who performed the autopsy said there was no mark of torture on his body.