Robbers booked under anti-terror law for killing medical student

The 20 year-old girl’s killing, who lost her life during an exchange of fire between the police and robbers in North Karachi, remains a mystery as the police investigators are yet to ascertain by whose bullet in the crossfire, the young female medical student died.

The police, however, have registered a case against the armed robbers under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

An FIR No 85/19 was registered at the Sir Syed police station on behalf of a police constable, Adnan, against two suspects – of whom one was killed in the encounter and the other arrested in an injured state. Interestingly, while putting the sections of murder, attempt to murder and police encounter in the case, the police also added the Section 7 of the ATA in the FIR.

Refuting some media reports that said the girl, Nimra, was killed by the firing from the cops, the police have been claiming that she was killed by the firing from the armed robbers. “Everyone knows that the girl was killed by the robbers’ firing as the medical report also confirmed it,” said Sharae Noor Jahan SHO Rao Zahir. “But some sections of the media are trying to change the nature of the incident.”

Nimra, daughter of Ejaz Baig, was a final year student at the Dow University of Health Sciences. She was injured while travelling in a rickshaw near Anda Morr late on Friday night, within the limits of the Sir Syed police station, after being hit by a bullet during an exchange of fire between the robbers and the Sharae Noor Jahan police.

One suspected robber, Riaz, 25, son of Abdul Malik, was killed in the shootout and another wounded. The injured girl was first taken to the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital with critical head injuries from where she was shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) where she died.

A four-member inquiry team, comprising Criminal Investigation Agency DIG Arif Hanif, Zone West DIG Amin Yousufzai and two senior superintendents of police, Noman Ahmed Siddiqui and Samiullah Soomro, was formed to investigate the case. The team visited the crime scene and recorded statements of the eyewitnesses.

The team will submit a report to Additional IG Karachi Dr Amir Shaikh after ascertaining the facts of the incident. Medico-legal officer at the JPMC Dr Zakia had told the media that the victim received a 2.5cm wound on the right side of her head, which suggested that the bullet had been fired with a small weapon.

Nimra’s family has demanded a fair investigation into the incident. “By which bullet she was killed? we should be informed,” says victim’s maternal uncle, Zaki Khan. “No one was there to help my niece. Even with critical head injuries, she was taken to hospital on a rickshaw.”

The family wanted the authorities to carry out investigations from different angles and answer them why the police personnel opened fire instead of chasing and arresting the street criminals in the public place, by whose bullet the girl died and why doctors at Abbassi Shaheed Hospital referred her to Jinnah hospital instead of providing timely treatment to her.

JPMC Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali said Nimra was initially taken to Abbassi Shaheed Hospital, which referred her to the JPMC for a better treatment where she died soon after her arrival. “Her skull was fractured and her head was bleeding badly,” Dr Jamali explained. “There was no hope but we immediately shifted her to ventilator but she could not survive.”