Police brutality?: Gizri SHO issued notice in 'encounter' case

The culprits fired at police team approaching them and thus were shot during the retaliatory fire, the police claim


Our Correspondent January 14, 2016
CREATIVE COMMONS

KARACHI: A district court issued on Thursday a notice to the SHO of the Gizri police station on an application seeking the registration of a case against his subordinate officials and personnel for allegedly killing a young man in a 'staged' encounter.

In the incident, which the police describe as an encounter with robbers, 25-year-old Zakariya Muhammad was killed, while his friend Ghulam Azad was injured.

Sughra Bibi, the mother of the deceased, through her counsel moved an application under Section 22-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure and contended that her son had recently returned from Malaysia and was living in Lyari.

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The applicant's lawyer argued that the police arrested the victim on the night of January 1, since he was carrying cash, and killed him in a fake encounter in Gizri. The counsel submitted that the applicant approached the concerned SHO with an application to lodge a case against the police officers involved but he refused to entertain the plea.

In the application moved by the victim's mother, the Gizri SHO has been implicated as the respondent. Zakariya's mother has requested the court to direct the officer to register the case against the accused.

An additional district and session judge of district South, after presiding over the preliminary hearing, issued a notice to the Gizri SHO and directed him to file comments till January 16.

Meanwhile, the police, outside the court, have maintained that both the persons were mugging people in Defence Housing Authority and upon receiving complaints the law enforcers took instant action. The culprits, instead of surrendering, fired at the police team approaching them and thus were shot during the retaliatory fire, the police claim.

There is case registered against the two men with charges involving robbery, attempted murder, attacking law enforcers and possessing illicit weapons. The injured man, who survived the encounter, is in police custody on physical remand.

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