Sharae Faisal 'encounter': Man demands police officials be re-arrested for killing his son

‘CCTV footage of Maqsood's killing shows there was no encounter’

KARACHI: The father of a young tailor killed by police in an allegedly fake encounter two months ago on Sharae Faisal has publicly demanded the release of closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the incident.

He also demanded that the cops, who were accused of conducting the ‘fake encounter’, be arrested again and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) be added in the FIR registered against them.

“Our demands are simple. Release CCTV footage of the incident, add the ATA in the FIR and re-arrest the cops,” said Sher Khan, father of deceased tailor Maqsood, at a press conference on Tuesday. He was accompanied by rights activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir.

“CCTV footage has answers to all the queries,” he said.

Maqsood’s father denied that his son was carrying any weapon at the time he was killed. He alleged that the police killed Maqsood intentionally just to get rewards from the high ups. “I want justice,” Khan said.

Police’s claims

On January 20, the 27-year-old was shot dead near the Pakistan Air Force base on Sharae Faisal. He was a tailor by profession and the sole brother among five sisters.

The police party, which had encountered Maqsood, claimed that he was a criminal and was killed during a shoot-out. However, a few hours later, the police authorities retracted their initial statement and issued another statement claiming that an 'innocent' citizen was killed in an exchange of fire between a suspect and the police.

The police also claimed that two suspects, Ali and Babar, had been arrested in injured condition while their accomplice, Ibrahim, had managed to escape in the encounter. According to the police, the suspects arrested were involved in several cases of mobile phone snatching and they targeted people coming from the Karachi airport.

Later, Babar died of his injuries.

CCTV footage says otherwise

However, Nasir, who claims to have seen the CCTV footage of the incident, said the footage clearly showed that a policeman was shooting Maqsood under the pretext of an encounter.

“A police mobile was following a rickshaw, which overturned after the police opened indiscriminate fire. Later, the policemen, especially ASI Tariq, took the suspected criminals [who were travelling in the vehicle] onto the footpath and shot them," Nasir said, adding that the ASI later turned back to the rickshaw and shot Maqsood multiple times at close range, who was still in the vehicle along with the driver and another man.

“Initially, we were demanding exhumation of Maqsood's body as according to a postmortem report, one bullet remained in his body,” Nasir said.



“The reason behind the demand for exhumation was to confirm either the deceased was shot from a .30 bore pistol or 9mm pistol as the police had earlier claimed that the robbers had .30 bore pistols,” he added. He claimed that the case had taken a U-turn after CCTV footage as it confirmed that the suspects had no weapon.

“The rickshaw driver, another passenger and the arrested suspect recorded in their statements that robbers were following them but in CCTV footage, it is clear that the suspected robbers were travelling in the same rickshaw,” Nasir explained.

“This means that the police has pressurised them to record fake statements.”

Nasir also blamed senior police officials for hiding facts of the fake encounter. “What is wrong in releasing CCTV footage publicly?” he questioned. He alleged that some senior police officers were trying to hide the facts because they had earlier announced rewards for the cops who had conducted the fake encounter. Some police officials even earlier claimed that there was no CCTV footage of the incident, the rights activist said.

Nasir lamented that over two months had passed since the killing, but no progress had been made in the case. The police submitted an interim charge sheet to the court, however, the court did not accept it and ordered the police to submit a complete charge sheet by March 31, he said.

“The police officials had included the Section 7 of the ATA in the FIR registered on behalf of the state against the suspected robbers. Now, it has been proven that it was a fake encounter and so Section 7  of the ATA should be included in the FIR registered against the police officials,” he asserted.

Nasir also demanded that a separate FIR be registered against the facilitators for hiding facts of the incident. He appealed to the media to build a pressure on the police to release CCTV footage publicly.