For law and order?: Police kill another innocent man, make same excuses again

The personnel initially declared the victim was a dacoit, later claimed he was killed by robbers’ gunfire

KARACHI: Forty-year-old Asad Khan was ecstatic. He had just been promoted and couldn’t wait to get home and share the good news with his wife and two children. His life was, however, brought to an abrupt end by the police who shot him dead as he was leaving the market after buying sweets to celebrate the good news.

A resident of Muslim Town, near Nagan Chowrangi, Khan was employed at a textile mill at SITE. He was on the way home when a single bullet ended his life. This time, however, the perpetrators were those under oath to protect the lives of all citizens - the police.



The events surrounding the incident remain vague as the police have issued several statements, each contradicting the previous one. Witnesses and family members of the deceased claim Khan was killed by police firing near the Five Star Chowrangi in North Nazimabad.

“The police are frequently changing their statements,” Khan’s brother-in-law, Muhammad Adeel, told The Express Tribune. “Initially, they declared him a dacoit. A little later, they said he was killed in the crossfire between robbers and the police. Now, they are claiming he was killed by robbers during an alleged encounter.”

Khan was shot once in the head and died moments later. His death put the whole family into a state of shock and they refused to bury him until the perpetrators were taken to task. They staged a five-hour-long sit-in at the scene of incident that ended only after a case was registered against the police personnel.

Though they have ended the protest, the family realise the tragedy will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives. Khan’s two young sons have yet to come to terms with their loss. “They (people) are saying my father has been killed but how is this even possible?” asked his younger son, Hammad, a student of class VIII. “He had promised me a cycle on his promotion. I know he will come back with my cycle,” he exclaimed, refusing to reconcile with the hard fact.

Khan’s funeral prayers were offered near his house and he was later laid to rest at New Karachi graveyard. A large number of people, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan attended the funeral. They demanded the government to compensate his family.

Contradictory statements by police

Soon after the incident, the police had declared Khan a robber, claiming he was killed during an encounter with the police. After the family started to protest, however, the police changed their statement, saying he was killed by robbers’ firing during an encounter between the police and robbers.

“The police did not kill him,” maintained SHO Nawaz Gondal, who has now been suspended, pending further investigations. “He was killed by the robbers’ gunfire.”

Meanwhile, an FIR, No. 201/14 against the four policemen - Azam, Irfan Shafiq, Rehan Pasha and Adil has been registered on behalf of the victim’s relative, Junaid Hussain, under Section 302 (murder).

Interestingly, even with the registration of the FIR, none of the accused personnel have been arrested. They have reportedly fled after the incident. The investigators, however, claim the accused have not escaped. “It is very unfortunate that an innocent bystander was killed,” said the IO, Shakeel Rind. The officer added that the accused personnel had maintained during interrogation that Khan was killed by the robbers’ gunfire. “We are investigating the case on merit,” he asserted. “These policemen will be arrested and punished according to the law if found responsible for the murder.”

Precedent sets little hope for justice

This was certainly not the first time that the police or Rangers have killed an innocent man, declaring them a criminal. In the last high-profile case of this nature, two police personnel and a civilian were accused of murdering two men in a ‘fake’ encounter in Orangi Town in April 2014. A murder case was registered against the accused. All three, however, have still evaded arrest, allegedly through the connivance of their senior officials.

In this incident too, the police had initially declared both the victims as criminals, saying that they were killed in an encounter when they were looting passersby. The claims were, however, proved farcical when a private news channel aired footage of the killings that showed the police personnel shooting dead the victims after dragging them out of their vehicle.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2014.