Alleged police encounter: Mother challenges sessions court’s order

LHC’s Rawalpindi bench likely to take up the matter tomorrow


Mudassir Raja March 21, 2017
LHC’s Rawalpindi bench likely to take up the matter tomorrow. PHOTO: FILE

RAWALPINDI: The mother of the two brothers, killed in an alleged encounter with RA Bazaar police, has filed a petition with Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench seeking registration of murder cases against the police officials.

Bilqis Akhtar filed a petition against Cantonment DSP Raja Taifoor, RA Bazaar SHO Malik Sajid, and 15 other unidentified police officials for killing her sons Muhammad Irfan and Waseem.

The petition is likely to be taken up by the LHC on Wednesday.

The petition comes a week after an additional district sessions judge (ADSJ) had ordered the police to record statements of Akhtar, brothers and widows of the deceased and take action against the accused police officials in accordance with law.

Challenging the March 13 order, Akhtar noted that the ADSJ had ignored how two men had been killed by the police and contended that a second FIR must be registered.

She argued that police had registered a case for attempted murder and police encounter but did not mention that her sons had been murdered. Further, she argued that the ADSJ had given no attention to the fact that details in the post-mortem report of her sons had been changed while eyewitnesses had submitted affidavits stating no encounter took place in the locality on the date of the incident.

Akhtar urged the court to declare the ADSJ order as illegal and to direct the police to register a second FIR mentioning murder charges. She listed City Police Officer (CPO) Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi, Sadar DSP, and Saddar Berooni SHO as respondents.

On February 22, RA Bazaar police had raided Akhtar’s house in Quaid-i-Azam colony while looking for her son Abdul Manan in a motorbike theft case. The police, however, took Irfan and Waseem who were later shot in an alleged encounter. Police later arrested four other brothers of the two deceased and booked them on anti-terror charges.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21st, 2017.

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