Lowering the guard: Cop killed after detained robbers snatch police weapons

The robbers were being taken back from a court when they attacked police.

LAHORE:

A police sub-inspector was shot and killed and two constables were injured by two men accused of robbery whom the policemen were escorting to the prison after presenting them in a court on Monday.

The robbers snatched the policemen’s weapons and opened fire on them. An investigation police team of the Badami Bagh police station was escorting six robbers from the court to the police station, near Ring Road in a police truck, when two of the accused, Imran and Saqib, snatched the rifles from the policemen and shot them. The team in charge, Sub-Inspector Rafique, passed away and two constables received minor injuries. Police said the robbers carrying the police rifles managed to flee into the fields around Ring Road. Four other prisoners in the police truck, who also tried to escape, were caught. The body of the sub-inspector was taken to a morgue for an autopsy.

The injured constables were taken to a hospital where doctors later said their condition was out of danger. An FIR regarding the incident was registered by the Badami Bagh police. Several police contingents conducted a door-to-door search operation in the villages near the Ring Road but failed to find the escaped criminals.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2014.