Encounter: Protesters set fire to police post

Reject police claim that deceased was a criminal, demand inquiry.

FAISALABAD: A police check post was set on fire by protesters in Faisalabad on Saturday during a demonstration against the killing of a man in a police raid for his arrest on Friday night.

Earlier, protesters clashed with a police team when the latter baton charged them and shot bullets in the air to disperse them. Some protesters were injured in the clashes.

Police said Sabir was shot and killed in a shootout at his home on Friday night. Police claimed that they had raided the house to arrest him in a robbery case. They said they had fired in self defence after firing by the deceased and his accomplices. Sabir’s servant was injured in the shooting.

On Saturday, the relatives of the deceased staged a protest demonstration against the killing.

The protesters rejected the police claim and insisted that Sabir was not a criminal. They said he had been unarmed when the police shot him.

The protesters clashed with police officials who came to disperse them, chasing them and pelting them with stones. The police resorted to firing in the air.

The protesters later set fire to Awagatt check post on Jaranwala Road and blocked Jaranwala Road, holding traffic for several hours.

They dispersed after City Police Officer Bilal Siddiq Kamiyana arrived at the scene and promised that a case would be registered in the Friday’s incident and inquiry conducted to find out if the policemen were guilty.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2012.