Delayed investigations: Family of slain DSP accuses Gulistan-e-Jauhar SHO of links with gangsters

Hospital report says DSP Ghauri was shot from close range.

KARACHI:

The family of the DSP, who lost his life in an encounter with alleged gangsters in Safari Park on Thursday, accused the Gulistan-e-Jauhar SHO of having links with the gangsters.

DSP Qasim Ghauri of the Gulshan-e-Iqbal division and ASI Asif lost their lives in an alleged encounter with gangsters in Madho Goth and Hussain Hazara Goth. A few SHOs of the Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Bahadurabad police stations were also wounded.

On the day of the encounter, the police claimed they launched an operation after the alleged gangsters beat up Gulistan-e-Jauhar SHO Waseem. But the family of the deceased DSP insisted SHO Malik Saleem is involved.

“Everyone knows that my brother was a brave officer and he embraced martyrdom,” said DSP Ghauri’s brother, Hashim Ghauri, while talking to The Express Tribune.  He felt his brother was misguided by the SHO. “I appeal to the Sindh IGP to punish SHO Saleem and dismiss him from the police department to avoid more losses to the police department.” Hashim further claimed the seniors should investigate whether his brother was really shot and killed by the gangsters or if Saleem and his men killed him.

Based on the initial investigations, sources privy to the matter told The Express Tribune that the two groups - one led by Muhammad Pariyal Shah and another by Arshad, both backed by the Sindhi nationalist parties - were involved in land grabbing, extortion and other criminal offences in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and its surrounding areas with the support of local police.

Both groups had paid the police extortion money for allowing Qinqi rickshaws to ply the roads in that jurisdiction, said an official. “The Pariyal Shah group had already paid Rs400,000 to SHO Saleem’s beater Waseem for the earnings from Qinqis but the SHO blackmailed Arshad’s group and took Rs500,000 from them as well,” he said. “Later, he told Pariyal Shah that he will only allow them to collect the earnings from Qinqi rickshaws if they pay him more than Rs500,000.”

This led to a conflict between the policeman and Pariyal, who insisted SHO Saleem return his Rs400,000. When he refused, Pariyal and his men allegedly shot and injured Waseem to send a warning signal to his boss. Later, SHO Saleem allegedly misguided his senior, DSP Ghauri, and called him to the site where the latter died.

DSP Ghauri was shot nine times in the chest and was rushed to Aga Khan hospital first, and then to Jinnah hospital. His post mortem report has yet to be released. Based on the initial examination, officials at Jinnah hospital told The Express Tribune that he was shot from close range with a large weapon, most likely a sub-machine gun or G-3 rifle.

“We are not ruling out the involvement of SHO Saleem with the gangsters,” admitted the police chief for district East, DIG Captain (retd) Tahir Naveed. “Right now, there are only gossips about SHO Saleem’s involvement but we have yet to gain solid evidences that he was involved.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2013.