20 January 2005	Thursday	09 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Jan 19: The mystery surrounding the killing of two brothers in Gizri on Tuesday evening deepened on Wednesday as, what was initially claimed by police to be an 'encounter', turned out to be a cold-blooded murder.

The two brothers, Shakil Chandio and Farid Chandio, sustained fatal injuries in an exchange of fire with a police team in civvies. The shootout also left sub-inspector Asif Awan and constable Zafar Maroof dead.

Family members and neighbours of the deceased contested the police claim that it was 'an encounter', and insisted that it was simply an attack on the car service station owned and run by Farid Chandio.

They said that initially two armed men came at the service station and started firing shots without any provocation. Occupants of the shop, assuming that robbers had attacked them, retaliated immediately.

On hearing the sound of the shootout, some policemen sitting in nearby parked mobile vans rushed to the station. They were in civvies and it transpired later that they had come to help their colleagues.

A senior police official, on condition of anonymity, admitted police fault to the extent that they had conducted the raid on the service station while in civvies, instead of uniform.

This, he said, created utter confusion and led to the death of two policemen, besides two 'innocent citizens'. "We have not found any criminal case against the two brothers," the police official acknowledged.

Official sources remarked that the raid had been conducted in haste and the area police, the Frere police station, was not informed of it in advance. They maintained that it was mandatory on a police party to communicate to the relevant police station before conducting a raid.

The senior official also admitted a violation of rules on the part of the raiding team in this particular case. Family members of the Chandio brothers said that three days before the incident, Asif Awan, along with three other police officials, had brought a police mobile van and a private car to the service station and got the vehicles washed.

When they were about to leave, Farid Chandio asked them to make payment for the service. Awan told him if he did not know who had sent these vehicles for servicing. Informing him that the vehicles belonged to the Anti-violent Crime Cell, he also advised him not to seek the charges again, the bereaved revealed.

They stated that Farid told SI Awan to make sure that he had the money for payment against the service next time or do not come again. This led to an exchange of hot words between them, and Awan, hurling threats of dire consequences at him, left the place, they added.

The bereaved and neighbours also denied the presence of a close associate of Rehman Dakait, the notorious criminal, at the service station, and argued that if any criminal was there, the police should have laid a siege around the place and blocked all routes before conducting the raid.

Some witnesses said that two persons in plain clothes came to the service station and started firing as a result of which one Khalid, a friend of Abdul Sattar Chandio, father of the two brothers, received bullet wounds.

Khalid was sitting at the shop when the incident took place. The witnesses observed that the Chandios, being Baloch by caste, took the armed men as some rivals or robbers and returned the fire killing the two policemen on the spot.

Following their killing, policemen in civvies, sitting in the nearby parked police vans, appeared at the scene of the incident and resorted to an indiscriminate fire. The witnesses claimed that during the shootout, one of the two brothers was overpowered and asked to run away, but as he started running, he was shot dead.

Meanwhile, the medico-legal officials who performed postmortem said that Farid had suffered five bullets in his back and died on the spot. The family sources said that the police had raided the adjacent home of the deceased, abused the women there, ransacked the house and took away Rs175,000, a licensed TT pistol, two gold sets and other valuables.

The TPO Clifton, Munir Shaikh, said that the police had not registered a case so far. "We are examining the facts and will soon register a case," he added. The city police chief, Tariq Jamil, on Tuesday night, had claimed that Sharif alias Keechu, a close associate of Rehman Dakait, was present at the service station when the raid was conducted.

He had also claimed that Keechu had sustained bullet wounds during the shootout but managed to escape. However, when the police got information, later in the night, that an injured suspect had been admitted to a private hospital on Stadium Road, they picked him up and came to know that the man was not a suspect but Saleem Memon, an employee of the National Bank.

City police chief Tariq Jamil, talking to Dawn on Wednesday, said: "The police officials were in civvies but one of them was wearing a commando jacket. If policemen are in civvies, it does not mean that they are fired upon."

Defending his subordinates, he claimed that it was the attack that prompted them to return the fire in self-defence. He admitted that the two brothers were innocent and did not have any criminal record, but added that police had credible information that the wanted man, Keechu, was present at the service station and on the basis of the information, it was raided.

About the exchange of hot words between SI Awan and Farid Chandio, the city police chief said: "There may have been a petty dispute but I don't think it could have led to the killing of the two Chandios and two policemen."

Commenting on the escape of Keechu, he said: "It is not the first time that a robber has managed to flee. It happens in many cases of raids. The police tried to arrest Keechu but the unfortunate incident took place." He said that there were two persons who sustained injuries in the incident and fled the scene, adding that Keechu had not been arrested yet.

Chandios were not criminals

KARACHI, Jan 19: Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui confirmed on Wednesday that the two brothers, Shakil Chandio and Fareed Chandio, who were killed in police firing on Tuesday, were neither wanted criminal nor nominated in any case.

"No case was registered at any police station against the two brothers,'' he told a press briefing at his office, but added that they had been maintaining links with the notorious criminals, Rehman Dakait and Sharif alias Keechu, he said in reply to a question.

He said that the victims were sitting with Keechu when the police conducted the raid, and added that in fact, the injured Keechu had made his escape good through the house of the two deceased brothers.

COMPENSATION: The minister announced a compensation of Rs0.5 million each for SI Asif Awan and constable Zafar Maroof who were killed in the shootout. Inspector Khuda Bux, who was injured in the incident, will also be given Rs50,000, he added.