Youth trying to catch ‘fraudster’ shot dead by police

Hours after the tragic episode, four policemen of the Sindh police’s CTD were taken into custody


Faraz Khan July 12, 2016
Abrar's relatives demand justice as police pressurise them to withdraw an investigation in the case. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Trigger-happy policemen shot dead a young man in downtown Karachi in a bizarre turn of events involving an expensive cellphone, prize bonds, a minor demolition derby, a police chase and finally a fatal shooting.

Muhammad Abrar, 28, lost his life trying to retrieve his Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Edge from a buyer he had found online who turned out to be a fraudster.

But Abrar was not killed by any robber as usually happens during such cases in Karachi. He was instead shot dead – encounter-style – by police personnel, who mistook his cellphone rescue bid as a kidnapping.

'Policemen in civvies' kill man in Karachi's Sindhi Muslim society

More than 25 rounds of sub-machine guns – an assault rifle – were fired at the car from which Abrar was hanging out as it raced away on Sharae Faisal, driven by the prospective buyer, Dil Nawaz, who was injured as well.

Three bullets each hit the deceased and the driver. One to the head of Abrar proved fatal.

Hours after the tragic episode, four policemen of the Sindh police’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) were taken into custody after admitting their irrational behaviour had led to the death of an innocent man.

How it began?

Abrar, the youngest among three siblings living in Keamari, rejoined school years after leaving studies. He also worked as a junior instructor at a gym near his residence. To make some extra money, the Intermediate student often used Olx.com for selling second-hand cellphones.

This time also, he used the same online portal to advertise his Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Edge.

Abrar left his house for Saddar with his friends Naqsh alias Sohail and Sheharyar to a shopping centre located near Lucky Star.

“He had an offer of Rs27,000 from a neighbour but he received another offer of Rs30,000 Sunday night,” said Abrar’s elderly father Muhammad Azam. “We stopped him from going out so late in the night but he said he could not break his promise made to the customer [Dil Nawaz].”

Hours later, the family got news of his murder from Abrar’s friends, who had accompanied him to the selling location decided by the buyer-cum-accused.

“Abrar and Nawaz were in touch over the cellphone,” recalls Naqsh. “We stayed outside as Abrar sat with Nawaz in his Honda Reborn to finalise the deal.”

Abrar came outside to consult his friends as the buyer had given him two prize bonds worth Rs15,000 each instead of cash. “We asked him to cancel the deal,” said Naqsh.

The moment Abrar moved towards Nawaz’s car to return the bonds, the driver pushed the gas pedal, trying to escape by locking all the doors. But one of the rear windows was open and Abrar clung to it.

Instead of stopping the car, Nawaz sped away with Abrar hanging on, struggling to get inside the car to save his expensive mobile phone.

Stunned, Abrar’s friends frantically tried to follow the car, which had taken off towards Lucky Star, hoping the man would have fallen off the vehicle.

Blind’ justice: Another young man shot dead by Gizri police

After searching the entire area on motorcycle for about an hour, they could not find either the car or their friend.

“We asked a police mobile parked outside a hotel on Sharae Faisal who told us to go to the Preedy police station” recalls Sheharyar.

After getting no satisfactory answers from the Preedy police, the friends went to the Civil hospital and then to Jinnah hospital, where they found him dead.

What happened?

Also at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in police custody was Nawaz, who later narrated the whole story. He was also shot thrice in the episode but his condition was stable.

“I had an urgent need of a cellphone as I wanted to gift it to my sister, who had to leave the city Monday morning,” he told The Express Tribune. “I tried to speed away after finalising the deal with prize bonds.”

With Abrar hanging to his car, Nawaz came out on Sharae Faisal from Saddar only to be spotted by a police patrol car from where gunshots were fired without even signalling him to stop, according to the injured suspect.

“I thought they (police) were with Abrar and wanted to kill me, so I sped away,” Nawaz said.

Crashing into several vehicles on the way, the suspect’s car broke down after hitting yet another vehicle at Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society.

“The policemen came and opened indiscriminate fire,” recalled Nawaz, who has a prior record of involvement in fraud, including giving bogus prize bonds.

Ferozabad police were told the suspects were robbers and they had intercepted them. Then the policemen, who led the encounter, left.

Ferozabad SHO Kanson Dean said the police mobile belonged to the CTD. “It seems the anti-terror police saw the car as suspicious because Abrar was shouting for help while hanging onto the window and they opened fire,” he speculated.

CTD in-charge Raja Omar Khattab later said three policemen had surrendered before him while the man who opened fire at the car was arrested from his residence.

The prime suspect recorded his statement with the Ferozabad police.

“The car was speeding; a man was hanging out while shouting for help; we tried to stop the car but the driver did not stop.

He even hit many other vehicles which forced me to open fire,” he said. “We did not escape but left after informing the area police about the incident.”

An inquiry team headed by CTD AIG Sanaullah Abbasi will carry out further investigations.

Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal and IGP Allah Dino Khawaja have also taken notice of the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2016.

COMMENTS (12)

Kashif | 7 years ago | Reply @ibs wow man! Your kind is half responsible of the current situation in Pakistan. Judging people quickly with out an ounce of evidence.... In this high tech phone crazed society, people spend all their savings on phones so they can show off. Nothing alarming here.
ibs | 7 years ago | Reply Its a tragic story. But it makes me wonder where he got that expensive phone in the first place since he apparently wasn't working and is an intermediate student. Could this be a story where one robber was robbed by another robber?
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