KARACHI: Five suspected militants were killed in an alleged encounter when they ‘attacked’ the convoy of the former Malir senior superintendent of police on Saturday evening in the same area where a deputy superintendent of police along with his guard and driver was gunned down a day earlier.

Former Malir-SSP Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan told Dawn that he was going to examine the crime scene in Gulshan-i-Hadeed where Bin Qasim DSP Abdul Fatah Sangri was killed on Friday.

He said that due to lack of proper security, he had not visited the crime scene on Friday.

The officer said armed men riding three motorbikes and travelling in a car lobbed a hand grenade and opened fire on his vehicle when his convoy was on the link road between the National Highway and the Superhighway. He said he and other officials travelling in the armoured personnel carrier of police remained unhurt. In ‘retaliatory fire’ opened by his police guards, the car driver was killed on the spot, he said. As the suspects tried to flee, his guards armed with G-3 rifles took positions and killed four of them, while an equal number of suspects managed to escape, the SSP said.

Rao Anwar claimed to have seized the car, one motorcycle, weapons and hand grenades from their custody.

The police said the identity of the suspects, who sported beards, could not be ascertained immediately though the officer said he believed they were militants.

The SSP said the dead men could have links with the banned militant outfits as he said he had been facing threat from the Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and different groups of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan such as the Shaharyar group and the Sajna group.

The officer was transferred on Thursday night following his press conference in which the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was accused of its involvement in terrorist activities. The police chief removed him from the position on the charge of ‘misusing’ his authority, after Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah had taken ‘serious’ notice of the press conference and sought a report from the police chief on the matter within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Karachi-East DIG Munir Ahmed Shaikh told Dawn that the police investigators found some ‘leads’ to the targeted killing of DSP Bin Qasim Fatah Sangri, head constable Nazeer Ahmed and constable Farooq Ahmed.

He said sketches of the assailants had been prepared with the help of witnesses. The investigators also had obtained footage to examine and identify the attackers who must have done a recce before targeting the DSP.

The senior officer recalled that in 2001 nine policemen had been gunned down in the same area of Gulshan-i-Hadeed. He said the police investigators were trying to ascertain if the Friday morning attack had any ‘links’ with that incident.

In reply to a question, the officer said the police in their initial findings suspected involvement of banned militant outfits in the killing of the DSP, his guard and driver.

“DSP Sangri may not have taken active part against the militants, but he might have been targeted for being a senior police officer,” said the DIG East.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2015

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