Sulaiman Lashari murder case: Police submit charge sheet, claim incident was follow-up of previous altercation

Weapons used by the defendants were issues by a police training centre.

KARACHI: Salman Abro and Sulaiman Lashari had an altercation when Abro tried to overtake Lashari's vehicle at Sea View, days before the former allegedly killed the latter, as revealed by the investigators, who were quoting Lashari's brother.

In the charge sheet, the police also inserted Section 457 (trespassing or breaking-in by night in order to commit an offence punishable by imprisonment) against the suspects, after determining that the suspects had forcefully entered the victim's house with the intention of killing him.

During the course of the investigation, records obtained from the Sakrand Training Centre revealed that the weapons used by the policemen, who were the gunmen of Abro's father, SSP Ghulam Sarwar Abro, were issued to them from the training centre.

The investigation officer, Muhammad Mobin, stated in the charge sheet that the medico-legal certificates of Jinnah hospital and Ziauddin hospital confirmed that the suspect was over 18 years of age.

Mobin said that the shooting spread fear and a sense of insecurity among the people as the incident was reported in print and electronic media. He also added that the investigation has proven all the allegations levelled against the suspects.

While requesting the court to accept the charge sheet for hearing, district public prosecutor Abdul Maroof said that scientific, medical, ocular, circumstantial, chemical and ballistic evidence has been included in the investigation report by the police.

Maroof told The Express Tribune that the prosecution has included 42 witnesses in the case. He confirmed that the court has accepted the charge sheet for hearing.

The charge sheet states that Salman Abro and constables Maqbool Ahmed Brohi, Imran Ali Arain, Yaseen Jamali and Muhammad Rashid are in custody, while deceased constable Zaheer Ahmed was listed in Section 2 of the charge sheet.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupee) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, on a complaint of a brother of the deceased at the Darakhshan police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2014.