Ugly turn of events: Police kill Faisal Town shooter in ‘fake’ encounter

Shah had killed three owners of showrooms on Wednesday.

LAHORE: A man who shot three owners of car showrooms in Faisal Town on Wednesday was killed allegedly in a fake police encounter on Maulana Shaukat Ali Road on Thursday.

A senior police official said Ghulam Abbas Shah, 40, was shot dead near the same area he had shot the three men. He said Shah had returned to the showroom with an accomplice on Thursday. There was a shootout with the police and Shah sustained bullet injuries, he said. Police seized his Kalashnikov and took his accomplice into custody, he said. The body was taken to a mortuary for post mortem examination.

Police registered a case under Section 155c (wilful breach of law) of the Police Order against Faisal Town SHO Nabi Bakhsh Butt and beat officer Amanat and arrested them. Another police official requesting anonymity said Shah had been in police custody since Wednesday night. He said Inspectors Fayyaz and Bashir Niazi had apprehended him.

Operations SSP Muhammad Baqar Raza told The Express Tribune that Shah had been a proclaimed offender. He had been implicated in two cases registered under Sections 302 and 324 in Narowal in 2005 (murder and premeditated murder liable for qisas). He said Shah had been working as a guard at several showrooms in the Faisal Town for the last three years and yet no one knew about it.

Shah had shot his former employers Adeel Sheikh, Mian Waheed Awan and Malik Shafqat who were laid to rest on Thursday.

One of Sheikh’s cousins said, “The police killed the guard but won’t bring Adeel back.”

Requesting anonymity,one of Shah’s relatives said that the showroom owners had not paid him his salary for the last three months. Shah was having trouble making ends meet at home and was depressed, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2015.