19-month-old Ahsan Shaikh killed by cop’s bullet: CTD inquiry report

Police officials investigating the killing of 19-month-old Ahsan Shaikh in alleged police firing have completed their probe, which confirms that the minor boy was killed by police constable Amjad’s firing.

The minor child was killed in April when he was hit by a bullet while sitting in the lap of his father, Kashif Shaikh, in a rickshaw near Khalid Bakery located close to Safoora Chowrangi within the limits of the Sachal police station.

In the report, the investigators of the Sindh police’s Counter Terrorism Department said the other three cops who were present at the scene at the time of the firing were blame-free. It denied rumors about a fight among the cops, stating that they were busy in snap checking in the area when police constable Amjad fired a single shot on suspects riding a motorcycle, but the bullet hit the child and killed him.

The report said the investigators also checked the CDR of the policemen as well as the footage recorded by the nearby cameras. The rickshaw driver in which the family was travelling is yet to approach the police, and even a citizen who reportedly informed the cops about the suspected criminals is still at large.

According to the findings, the police also published an advertisement to seek public help in tracing the rickshaw driver and the citizen, but nobody has approached them yet. Section 304 of the Pakistan Penal Code has been replaced with Section 319 and Section 324 would be removed, the report said, adding that police constable Amjad would be named in the charge sheet.

The family took the child’s body away with them from the nearby Memon Hospital. The body was later moved to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for an autopsy. The family had claimed that they were in a rickshaw when we saw the policemen fleeing while resorting to indiscriminate fire, adding that moments after they saw blood flowing from Ahsan’s body.

Later, the family also claimed that there was no exchange of fire between the police and the robbers, but their loved one was killed during an internal fight among the policemen.

On the directives of Sindh Inspector General of Police Dr Syed Kaleem Imam, the investigation was transferred to the CTD, which was being headed by CTD DIG Abdullah Shaikh.