Shootout: Cop, rickshaw driver shot dead outside sessions court

Shooter says he thought plainclothes policemen were there to kill him.

LAHORE:

A constable and a rickshaw driver were shot and killed and another policeman injured in a shooting by a murder accused outside the district and sessions courts on Secretariat Road on Saturday.

Islampura police personnel arrested the shooter, identified as Muhammad Ismail, a 25-year-old resident of Kareem Park, shortly after he opened fire on the two constables from the Allama Iqbal Town Crimes Investigation Agency (CIA).

The Islampura SHO said that Ismail had stated under interrogation that he had gone to the courts to attend the hearing of a murder case for which he was the accused. After the hearing, he had hailed a rickshaw near Amer Hotel on Secretariat Road to take him and his friend Balaj home.

Ismail told the police that he had been under threat of attack from some old enemies and when he saw the CIA constables, who were dressed in plain clothes, he thought they had been there to kill him. He said that he had opened fire in a pre-emptive act of self-defence.

Constable Sajid Ali was shot in the head and died on the spot. Constable Muhammad Anwar was shot in the leg and taken to Mayo Hospital for treatment. Rickshaw driver Muhammad Kaleem Khan was hit by a stray bullet and died from the wound in the hospital.

Police said that Ismail’s friend Balaj had fled the scene and they were raiding houses in Kareem Park to arrest him.

An officer at the CIA Iqbal Town police station said that the constables had gone to the scene to arrest Ismail because he was a proclaimed offender. They had been tipped off about his presence at the scene. He said it was strange that a man who had just been in court had been carrying a loaded weapon.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2013.