District West SSP Irfan Baloch was one of the police officers who had taken credit for the encounter without verifying it. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
A murder case has been registered against the two policemen and a civilian for carrying out a fake encounter in Orangi Town earlier this month.
The three accused have, however, managed to escape despite the registration of the case, allegedly with the help of their seniors.
On April 17, two young men were shot dead in a fake encounter on MPR Road in Orangi Town, within the limits of Pirabad police station. Police officials had claimed that both the deceased were criminals and were looting passers-by when they were killed in an encounter with the police personnel, who were on routine patrol in the area. The personnel had claimed to have seized two pistols and a motorcycle from the suspects.
Questions were raised regarding the police's claims, however, after a private news channel aired the footage of the killings, which showed uniformed personnel and a civilian next to a white, Karachi-registered Suzuki Mehran. It was apparent from the footage that the personnel did not find anything illegal from the victims. As the uniformed personnel frisked the two suspects, the footage captured the plainclothes personnel open fire into the air. The next scene showed the victims' bodies in an ambulance.
After the footage was released, an investigation team was formed under the supervision of the District West SSP Irfan Baloch to investigate the matter. The two suspects were later identified as Naseer and Imran by their families.
Samiullah, a relative of Naseer said they would not have been able to prove their innocence had it not been for the footage.
Sources told The Express Tribune that both the suspects were also declared innocent in the inquiry, while the police high-ups also dismissed the personnel from service after they were found guilty.
Meanwhile, the accused cops and the civilian have conveniently managed to go into hiding, allegedly with the help of their senior officials, after the murder case was registered against them.
"Why did the senior officers not record their [guilty personnel] statements or detain them?" questioned a police officer. "Now the police will have to search and arrest them. Were they waiting for them to escape before?"
The inquiry team's head, district West SSP Irfan Baloch, confirmed that the suspects have escaped and the police are currently looking for them. "A majority of the encounters are genuine and such incidents are a rarity," he said. He was one of the police officers who had taken credit for the encounter without verifying it. "Now the murder case has been registered against them and it is up to the investigation wing to scrutinise the matter." He said that the police were still waiting for the forensic report of the footage to determine whether the encounter was real or fake.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2014.
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