KARACHI, Sept 20: The sole bread-winner of a family, 26-year-old Asif, was gunned down by some trigger-happy policemen escorting a VIP on Stadium Road late on Tuesday night.

Following the incident, the police escort accompanying Shah Sirajul Haq sped away, leaving the lookers stunned over the shooting.On Sunday also, an innocent man was gunned down by police for merely ignoring a police signal to stop on Tariq Road.

Shoaib, 35, who survived with minor injuries in Tuesday night’s incident, said he and Asif were going in a car, and Asif was to drop him on Stadium Road.

“As we slowed down on traffic signal in front of Aga Khan Hospital, one of the two police mobiles escorting a black car opened fire on us.

“A bullet slightly touched my throat and suddenly Asif fell in my lap. Our car ran over the median”, Shoaib recalled, adding a traffic policeman and some pedestrians came over to their rescue and they were shifted to Aga Khan Hospital.

Passersby who witnessed the incident went inside the hospital to inquire into the incident, asking about the identity of the victims.

However, Asif, son of a retired policeman, who suffered a bullet wound to his head, was pronounced dead.

Shoaib said while he was sure that fire came from the police mobile, the policemen in the hospital kept on asking him again and again about the origin of firing.

They were trying to make him believe that he could have got confused and firing must have come from some other direction, Shoaib said.

Finally, the police registered an FIR (249/2006) on the complaint of Shoaib, but made an entry that the bullet was fired upon from an unknown vehicle contrary to Shoaib’s statement that firing occurred from a police mobile escorting a black car.

“Initially, I was supposed to get off on Jail Chowrangi, but later Asif, thought that it will be easier for me to get the transport from Stadium Road, so he decided to drop me in that direction”, Shoaib, a technician, further recalled.

Slain Asif was the sole breadwinner of his family residing in the police quarters in Garden police line. He was working as heavy machinery technician for the last 16 years at Haji Gulzar Company located in the Old City area.

Following Tuesday night’s incident, police verified the background of the two victims’, trying to find out if they have any criminal background.

Had they been successful in tracing any criminal history, they would have pronounced them as bandits, but there were no such past instances.

A senior police official requesting anonymity claimed that they have arrested six policemen escorting the car of Mr Shah Siraj ul Haq.

To a query as to why police have mentioned in the report that firing occurred from unknown vehicle, the official said “we have lodged the FIR as per statement of the complainant; whatever he has said in the statement was written in the FIR”, the official added.

On Sunday last, the police had gunned down an innocent citizen for merely ignoring the police signal to stop on Tariq Road in the small hours. Three lowest ranking police officials were booked for killing the innocent citizen, later identified as Zafar Hameed. The police failed to recover any firearm from the possession of the deceased.

TPO Jamshed Sultan Khuwaja, who conducted an initial inquiry into the incident, said: “The deceased was innocent and was not involved in any criminal case.”

On March 21, a man and his sister, identified as Feroz and Sabeeha, were killed and Feroz’s daughter Afsana and his brother Bhola were injured when a police mobile fled after opening fire at the family.

The subsequent (FIR 122/06) was registered against unknown killers at the Taimuria police station.

Later three police men were put behind bars for their involvement in the firing.

However, weeks later police achieved tranquility when they claimed that the family in question had a criminal record, describing swindling as their specialty.