HRCP demands probe into ‘suspicious’ PIB Colony police shootout

Casting doubts over a police encounter in PIB Colony in which four young people were killed on April 28, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has demanded of the government to conduct a high-level inquiry into the shootout and allow the relatives of the victims to lodge FIRs.

On night of April 28, the PIB Colony police claimed to have killed two notorious gangsters belonging to the Ahmed Ali Magsi gang over their alleged involvement in “extortion, drugs sale and rape of women”. Two other young people injured in the shootout also died after a few days.

The following day, residents and relatives of the killed and injured men blocked University Road for hours in protest. Sharing the fact-finding report conducted by the HRCP at its office on Tuesday, the watchdog’s office-bearers said that after taking notice of the incident, a team was formed to visit and meet the victims’ families and eyewitness in Manoo Goth, and police officers to ascertain facts about the encounter that claimed the lives of Bilal (22), Amir (21), Mohammad Islam (18) and Masood (20).

“Police, particularly SHO Haroon Korai, told the team that he had orders from above that the four men, who were gangsters, were up to something. Police also insisted the men fired at them first,” Khizer said. “But families insisted that they were arrested alive and one Islam was injured.”

“The HRCP team was informed that Masood fired at the police and then escaped although they had injured him in retaliation. Then Bilal and Amir were killed too by the police and Islam was sent to hospital as he was injured,” he said.

He wondered why the police could not catch Masood then even though Masood was had been injured. Khizer said closed-circuit television camera footage from a nearby Naswar shop had proved the entire story given to them by police.

“The HRCP team watched the footage and it clearly showed that Masood is running with a mobile phone in one hand while his other hand is empty. There was no gun there. Then when he was fired at, the bullet hit him in the chest and he fell down,” Khizer said. “But there was another bullet wound to his leg found later, meaning that he was fired upon again after being hit.

Expressing his concerns over media reports showing that all the bodies had bullet wounds above the waist level in their back, in their chest, neck and head, Khizer said, adding that it showed that police wanted to kill them, not arrest them and present in the court if they had some cases against them.

“To this day, the victims’ families have not been shown any FIR against the men, any postmortem reports, anything from the medico-legal officer,” he said. “Families were also not allowed to register an FIR though they ended their April 29 protest on University Road on the condition that a case will be registered.”

Asad Iqbal Butt, the HRCP’s co-chair, said that because of such dubious encounters, poeple would lose faith in the system and law.

“Similar to the several previous cases, the police presented a similar explanation of how the alleged shootout took place: they acted on a tip-off from an intelligence agency, tracked down the suspects who were the first to fire the shots and they had no option but to retaliate,” Butt said.

He also said that during a meeting with the investigation officer of the Quaidabad police station, who was probing the shootout, the HRCP found that he had not yet even visited the scene of the crime.

Dr Tausif Ahmed Khan, an HRCP’s council member and senior academic, said that a fact-finding report revealed that police did not allow doctors at the hospital to conduct MRI and other procedures. “If it is true, it is very inhumane and appalling,” he said.

Senior lawyer Shoaib Ashraf, HRCP council member Saeed Baloch, and relatives of the victims were also present at the HRCP office during the media briefing.