UC chairman, cop remanded under ATA in Ranjhani case

The anti-terrorism courts’ (ATCs) administrative judge remanded on Monday UC chairman Abdul Raheem Shah and police officer Riaz Hussain in police custody for three days in a case pertaining to the killing of a suspected robber by denying him medical treatment.

According to the remand papers, Shah shot Irshad Ranjhani, who, according to him, was a robber. He then did not let anyone shift the injured man to hospital until the arrival of police. Hussain further delayed the treatment by taking the injured to the police station instead.

Ranjhani was a political activist affiliated with the Jeay Sindh Tehreek and had served as its Karachi president. According to his family and friends, he had returned from Dubai recently to spend some time with them and was murdered in cold blood.

On the other hand, Shah claimed that at least four pillion riders intercepted his vehicle near Babar Kanta in Bhains Colony and two of them at gunpoint asked for the Rs1 million he was carrying. The robbers, he added, fired shots at him as he tried to speed away after which he returned the fire.

As a result, Ranjhani was injured, he said, while his alleged accomplices escaped. He maintained that he informed the police about the incident on helpline 15 after which cops reached the scene and seized an unlicensed pistol from the suspected robber.

The suspects were earlier remanded by a District Malir judicial magistrate (JM). However, on the second turn, he referred the case to ATCs. The administrative judge, Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, asked the suspects if they had challenged the JM decision to which they replied they had not yet done that.