Imran, others booked for 'hiding facts' in PTI worker death case

FIR registered on the basis of the statement given by the suspected driver

LAHORE:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and PTI leaders, including Fawad Chaudhry, Farukh Habib, Yaseem Rashid, Raja Shakeel and others, have been booked for 'hiding facts' in the Ali Bilal alias Zil e Shah's death case.

The case against the PTI leaders was registered at Sarwar Road Police Station on the complaint of Inspector Adnan Bukhari.

Jahanzeb Nawaz, the suspected driver of the vehicle that had reportedly hit Ali near Fortress, gave a statement to the police during the investigation which has been made the basis of the FIR.

According to his statement, Jahanzeb was driving his company's vehicle and had gone to visit his friend, Umar Fareed, near Fortress.

Jahanzeb stated that he hit the victim near Fortress bridge as he was returning to drop off the vehicle near Waris Road. Seeing that Ali was injured, Jahanzeb took him to the hospital.

According to Jahanzeb's statement, the PTI worker was taken to the nearby Combined Military Hospital (CMH). However, due to the large number of people present at CMH, he was taken to Lahore Services Hospital.

In the statement, Jahanzeb added that once he reached the hospital, he asked an Edhi ambulance driver for a stretcher, after which he took the victim to the hospital's emergency room.

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He further claimed in his statement that he left the hospital once a doctor informed him that Ali had died.  After parking the vehicle at Waris road, he left on a rickshaw for his residence near Sherpao.

Further, Jahanzeb said that when he saw his pictures on social media the next day, he informed his boss and PTI leader Raja Shakeel about the incident.

According to his statement, Shakeel took Jahanzeb to Zaman Park where he sat outside in the vehicle while Shakeel went inside. When Shakeel returned, he told Jahanzeb to "relax and not be worried at all".

At a press conference on Saturday, Punjab caretaker chief minister Mohsin Naqvi along with Punjab IG Usman Anwar shared the details of the investigations into the PTI worker's death and claimed that Ali had died from an accident and not police torture.

The Punjab police chief rejected the PTI’s claim that the provincial administration was responsible for allegedly murdering the PTI worker, saying his death was “unfortunately misinterpreted”.

The PTI had alleged that Ali had died of police violence and torture after a crackdown on a rally near party chief Imran Khan’s Zaman Town residence last week to kick off its election campaign.