SHC orders action against police party

Deceased suspect implicated in several crimes in statement issued by Rangers on day of ‘encounter’

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court directed legal action against the police party involved in an alleged police encounter, dubbing the encounter ‘fake’.

A two-member bench, headed by Justice Nazar Akbar and comprising Justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan, heard the plea pertaining to the matter.

Observing that the suspect was shot in the chest 12 times but no bullets were fired in return and not a single police official was injured in the alleged encounter, Justice Akbar remarked that the series of events narrated by the police is based on fiction. Why did the police need to fire so many bullets when there was no retaliation from the opposite side, he asked.

The court acquitted two persons accused in the case, Muhammad Sohail and Sherullah, both of whom had been sentenced to five years imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court earlier.

The court further directed the relevant SSP to take legal action against the police party involved in the alleged encounter within seven days and submit an inquiry report on the matter within 15 days.

The defence counsel had contended that Manghopir Police carried out a fake encounter in which Abdullah Masood was shot dead and Sohail and Sherullah were injured. The counsel had maintained that no entry was made over the alleged encounter and the relevant police station was not informed about it either.

The ‘encounter’

According to a statement issued by the Sindh Rangers on December 21, 2019, the Sindh Rangers and the police had carried out a joint-raid on the hills in Sultanabad, Manghopir in order to arrest criminal elements. But the suspects opened fire at the Rangers and the police, and three suspects were shot and injured by retaliatory fire from the Rangers and police, read the statement.

It further added that two of the injured suspects managed to escape while Abdullah Masood was arrested. Illegal weapons, ammunition and stolen items, including two motorcycles, were confiscated, and Masood succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital, according to the Rangers’ statement.

The Rangers claimed in the statement that Masood was part of a 10-member criminal group and was booked in several cases. According to the paramilitary force, the deceased suspect was also involved in attacks on the police and Rangers.

The paramilitary force further claimed in the statement that Masood had injured two persons in March 2019 under Sohrab Goth Bridge for not paying extortion money, and that he and his accomplices were involved in injuring two police officials, Abid Ali and Muhammad Tariq, in April 2019.

In the Rangers’ statement, the deceased suspect was accused of murdering two citizens during a robbery bid near Indus Plaza, injuring a Rangers’ official during an encounter in Manghopir and attacking a police forensic van in Sachal in December 2019. Besides, he was accused of several robberies in the limits of Sohrab Goth, Janjal Goth, Gulshan-e-Maymar, New Karachi, Site Super Highway and other police stations, and an exchange of fire with the police in Janjal Goth in July 2019.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2020.