Aim and fire: Families claim loved ones were killed in ‘fake encounter’

The Lyari police also claim to have killed a suspect allegedly involved in various criminal cases.

KARACHI: Families of the three suspects killed in an alleged encounter by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday night claimed that the police had 'picked them up' a week ago and killed them in a 'fake' encounter.

What happened

According to sources, three suspects from a banned outfit were shot dead in an alleged encounter with the CID's counter-terrorism unit near the Northern Bypass.

The deceased were identified as Gul Pir Khan, Noor Alam and Ameer Muhamamd and the CID claims to have recovered three pistols, two hand grenades and improvised explosive devices from their possession. The bodies were taken to the Edhi morgue. Their families went there to identify their loved ones and took the bodies for burial on Wednesday.

The suspects, sources claimed, were related to each other and hailed from Waziristan and used to live in Mauripur.



The relatives of these men, claimed that the police had killed them in a 'fake' encounter. "They were picked up from different parts of the city over a week ago," said one of the relatives, who did not wish to be named. "We kept going to the CID offices to find about them but no one was ready to own their arrests." He added that this was wrong and Khan, Alam and Muhammad were not involved in any criminal activities but were running a business.

The family warned that they would take the issue to court for justice.

According to Khurram Waris, who is the in-charge of the CID's counter-terrorism unit, the allegations made by the families were false. He said that the men were militants and were working in Karachi and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. He added that they were involved in sectarian killings and kidnapping for ransom cases.

"They were planning attacks on two private schools in Karachi," he said while talking to The Express Tribune. He did not disclose any names or locations due to security concerns but added that they had intelligence about the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan preparing for an attack in Karachi.

"It is common for the families of criminals to defend them," he said. "Have you ever seen or heard a family admit that their loved one was a criminal?"

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2015.