Two ‘liquor smugglers’ gunned down at border

Rangers arrest two accomplices, two others flee.

LAHORE:

Rangers personnel shot and killed two men who were allegedly trying to smuggle 151 bottles of liquor from India to Pakistan on Saturday morning.

According to an FIR registered at Batapur police station, six men crossed the zero line fence 250 miles from Icho Gill village. Rangers officials at the Chingi Shaheed post directed them to stop at 3:30am, but they opened fire on them. The Rangers fired back, killing two men. Two were arrested and two fled. The arrested men were carrying 140 bottles of beer and 11 bottles of whiskey.

The two men who had been killed were identified as Kamran, a resident of Pattoki, and Syed Aqeel Shah of Muridke. Their bodies were sent for autopsies. Muhammad Ayub and Muhammad Tanveer were arrested. The two men who fled were identified as Muhammad Ghaffar and Muhammad Ashraf alias Cook.

A case was registered against the alleged smugglers under Sections 324 (attempted murder) and 353 (assaulting a public servant) of the Pakistan Penal Code, sections of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act and Sections 156 (punishment for offences) and 178 (accompanying a person in possession of goods liable for confiscation) of the Customs Act on the complaint of ASI Muhammad Akhtar of the Rangers.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2012.