Relatives of a man, killed in an allegedly fake shootout with the police on Wednesday, placed the coffin of the deceased at Tehsil Chowk and blocked the road for more than four hours.
Ashiq alias Guddoo, who was arrested by Chiniot city police on charges of a murder, was shot while being taken to Jhang district jail.
Police claimed that Ashiq and his accomplices had tried to flee from custody while they on Wednesday. They said his armed accomplices stopped the police van and tried to take him away. The police had claimed that Ashiq and his accomplice shot at the police, after which they returned gunshot at them. Ashiq died on the spot. The police had sent the body to the district headquarters hospital for a postmortem examination.
More than 15 relatives of the deceased chanted slogans against the police on Thursday and accused the police of staging the shootout. They alleged that the police, had killed Aashiq, at the behest of his rivals, who had earlier implicated him in a false murder case.
They demanded action against the police officials responsible for the killing.Aashiq’s father said that his family wanted an independent inquiry to ascertain the truth.
Chiniot DPO Rana Shahzad Akbar Khan said Aashiq was wanted in 36 cases.
“Aashiq was also involved in Inspector Sheikh Tahir’s murder. Still, had he not tried to escape, he would not have been killed,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 3rd, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ