Police use force to disperse crowd protesting ‘fake’ shootout

Hours-long conflict was witnessed on University Road in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighbourhood on Thursday after the families of the two suspects killed during an alleged encounter with the police held a protest there with the bodies of the deceased.

A large number of family members of the two suspects, their other relatives and their neighbours gathered on the main University Road near the Old Sabzi Mandi area and held a demonstration with the bodies of the deceased.

The protesters also blocked the flow of vehicular traffic on the road with tyres, which caused many difficulties for commuters, who got stuck in hours-long gridlocks. A heavy contingent of law enforcers arrived on the scene to control the situation. Police claimed that they first tried to disperse the protesters through talks, but when the demonstrators turned violent, the officials had no other option but to use force.

Police fired tear gas shells and hit the protesters with batons to clear the road. The families claim that the two men were killed in a fake encounter, but the police claim the suspects were extortionists.

Police said that the two men, identified as Amir and Bilal, had been arrested by the PIB Colony police in injured condition after an encounter in Sofia Colony.