KARACHI, Sept 6: The suspended station house officer of Gizri police station, Abdul Ghaffar Jumani, who is wanted in Gizri lock-up incident, has obtained a protective bail from a Larkana court, a senior police official said.

The former SHO and eleven other police officials were placed under suspension after two arrested suspects suffered serious burns in the Gizri police station lock-up. The suspects, Saleem Khan and Ameer Zada, later died in the Civil Hospital.

Jumani and other police officials were only facing charges of negligence, as the police believed that the suspects had burnt themselves in the lock-up. Only ASI Nasrullah, ASI Faiz Ali and Constable Badruddin have been arrested, while all other police officials wanted in the case are on the run.

An inquiry was ordered into the incident by the Sindh police chief, which had stated that the suspects had burnt themselves. It, however, maintained that "even if the suspects burnt themselves, they were most probably, lured into carrying out this extreme action."

The Gizri police claimed to have picked up Saleem Khan, 41, and Ameer Zada, 35, allegedly involved in some robbery cases, on Aug 18, while the families of the two accused claimed that they were picked up on Aug 9.

They were set on fire in the Gizri police station on Aug 23. Ameer sustained 100 per cent and Saleem 98 per cent burns, and were taken to the Civil Hospital. Later, Ameer died on Aug 25, while Saleem succumbed to his injuries the following day.

Despite the fact that the inquiry indicated some foul play in the burning incident, the police hierarchy had put the case into back-burner and did not take any action, the sources said.

Sindh police chief Syed Kamal Shah had told Dawn on Aug 28, that appropriate action was being taken against those responsible for the incident. Investigation SSP, Zone-I, Manzoor Mughal, told Dawn on Monday, that there was no significant progress in the case.

The police had arrested Sarwar Khan and Ismail Khan after the recovery of three TT pistols from them, for being accomplices of the two deceased suspects. A senior police official said that Sarwar had been involved in 12 cases of house robberies, and he also confessed to having raped women during robberies. He said that Ismail Khan was also involved in five cases of house robberies.

He said that Badshah Khan, a suspended policeman from Keamari investigation wing and the ringleader of the gang, might have fled to Mardan. A police team, which was ready to proceed to Mardan, could not be sent there for unavoidable reasons, police sources said.

The sources said that Badshah Khan frequently visited Gizri police station to get his brother's released, who had been picked up some months back. His gang consisted of 22 robbers, of them two died and two others had been arrested, they added.

A formal request had been sent to the Sindh High Court for conducting a judicial inquiry into the incident, a senior police official said.