Victims’ family blame police for stagging ‘fake encounter’

Relatives of the three people who had been killed within the limits of the Bangikhel Police Station the other day held a press conference at a hotel in Kalabagh on Thursday and accused the police of killing the three innocent people.

Arif Khan, one of the relatives of the deceased, alleged the police shot and killed the three people, two of whom were teenagers from Mutukhel village.

He alleged that there was no police encounter, and that the police “killed the innocent people on the basis of wrong information, just like in the Sahiwal tragedy”.

Two brothers were among the deceased.

Arif Khan recalled that Aamir Sohail had been riding the motorcycle while his two cousins, Ansar and Safarullah, who had been brothers, were traveling as pillions.

Ansar was a student of Class X while Safarullah Khan of Class IX.

Arif Khan demanded of the higher authorities to order a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Meanwhile, a protest demonstration was staged against the incident due to which the Shakar Dara Road remained closed for several hours.

Moreover, the Deputy General Secretary of the Jamaat-e-Islami of North Punjab, Abdul Wahab Khan Niazi, demanded of the IGP to order a transparent investigation.

According to the FIR, the SHO of Bangikhel, Inspector Nasir Aziz Khan, along with a team of the Elite Force under the command of Sub-Inspector Fayaz Ahmed, had set up a barricade.

In the meantime, proclaimed offenders Shakeel, Zeeshan, Shiraz and others appeared, riding on motorcycles, said the FIR.

As soon as the proclaimed offenders spotted the police team, they dismounted from their motorcycles, took positions and opened fire on the police team.

Right at the very moment, the three relatives happened to pass by on their motorcycle having no inkling of the danger they had been moving into. Getting caught in the crossfire, they sustained serious gunshot wounds, said the FIR.

This was the version of the FIR lodged by the police themselves, but people of the area had accused police of mishandling the matter. They had alleged that police mistook the three people as the proclaimed offenders and shot them dead.

The deceased had been on their way home after doing some shopping at the Shakardara Bazaar.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2023.