Four cops held for wounding two students in fake encounter

Four policemen were arrested and suspended on Monday for wounding two students in a fake encounter in the Sachal area. Two teenagers, 15-year-old Baitullah and 14-year-old Asif, were injured when police opened fire on them during snap checking within the limits of the Sacchal police station on Sunday night. After shooting them, police rushed them to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medical treatment.

A video statement of one of the injured students came to limelight on Monday. In the statement, Baitullah said police opened fire on them despite the fact that they had stopped their motorcycle.

“We stopped the motorcycle and raised our hands but despite this, police opened fire on us saying that ‘you people are thieves’,” Baitullah claimed. He added that police also asked them where their accomplices were. “I don’t know why they considered us to be robbers,” Baitullah remarked in the video statement recorded from the hospital’s bed.

ASI Asghar Ali, constables Sabir and Bahadur, and Abdul Qadir, were found involved in the fake encounter, and were arrested after Baitullah’s father registered a case.

So far 4,390,631 tests had been conducted in Sindh, against which 332,660 cases were diagnosed, of which 92.5 per cent or 307,780 patients had recovered, including 482 overnight. The CM said that currently 19,536 patients were under treatment, of whom 18,915 were in home isolation, 30 at isolation centres and 591 at different hospitals.

Out of the 423 new cases, 195 were detected from Karachi, including 85 from District East, 40 District Central, 38 District South, 17 District Korangi, eight District West and seven District Malir. Hyderabad had 36 new cases, Badin and Jacobabad 11 each, Khairpur five, Jamshoro three, Nausheroferoze and Sukkur two each, Dadu, Sanghar and Ghotki one each.