‘Extrajudicial’ killing: Duty officer lists bullets seized from crime scene

ATC is hearing the case of Ghulam Haider who was shot when he failed to stop his car.

KARACHI: The police had seized three empties of bullets fired from a submachine gun and two empties of bullets of a 9mm pistol from the crime scene, revealed a duty officer testifying in the case of the ‘extrajudicial’ killing of a man by the Rangers.

Shah Faisal Police ASI Javed Iqbal was summoned to an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Thursday. The special court was hearing the case against a Ranger’s official, Shahzad, who was charged with killing a man, Ghulam Haider, when he allegedly failed to stop his car when ordered to do so on June 4. The Rangers authorities had handed over Shahzad’s custody to the police.



Iqbal told the ATC-I that he was present at the police station when someone informed him over the phone that some people were injured in firing at a roadside. When he and his teammates reached the site, they found an injured man sitting on the driving seat, said Iqbal in his statement. He took the injured man out of the car and sent him to the hospital in an ambulance along with the complainant of the case, Abdul Salam. The police then seized the five bullet empties from the crime scene.

After impounding the vehicle, Iqbal said he went to Jinnah hospital. The legal formalities were completed and Salam’s statement was recorded at the hospital. It was also entered in the FIR at the police station later on. Later on, the body was handed over to the legal heirs of the victim, he added.

Two days after the incident, Rangers officials came to the police station and handed over the sub-machine gun used in the alleged shooting, said Iqbal, adding that gun was handed over to the investigating officer. After Iqbal completed his statement, Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso, who is conducting the trial on a day-to-day basis on the apex court’s order, adjourned the hearing till Friday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2013.