Protesters place the coffin of one of the men on Islamabad Expressway on Sunday. — Online

RAWALPINDI: The expressway was blocked on Sunday evening for over an hour to protest the killing of two young men by officials of the Muhafiz Squad late Saturday night.

Funeral prayers were offered on the road by a large number of students, relatives of the victims and other residents.

Two officials of the Muhafiz Squad who were present at the scene of the shooting have been arrested while another two are still at large.

Brothers, Zeeshan Butt, 23, and Shakeel Butt, 25, who worked as butchers in Sadiqabad, were returning home from work on a motorcycle when they were signalled by policemen of the Muhafiz Squad to stop. According to the police, they did not stop and the policemen pursued them for two kilometres, after which they opened fire which took the lives of the young men.

Two policemen involved in the shooting at large, two arrested

A police official told Dawn the two officials of the Muhafiz Squad who fled the scene after the shooting, work directly under SSP Operations Rawalpindi. “According to law, officials of the squad are not allowed to open fire, even on robbers. This was sheer negligence on their part,” he said.

According to the FIR lodged by the victims’ brother, Mohammad Qadeer, the deceased men met him on 6th Road on their motorcycle. Suddenly, four police officials reached the spot on motorcycles and opened fire on his two brothers who fell on the ground and the policemen fled.

He said that the injured men were rushed to Holy Family Hospital and later shifted to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital where they died.

DHQ Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Khalid Randhawa told Dawn that during autopsy, doctors found bullets lodged in their backs which damaged their main arteries and led to excessive bleeding. He said the bodies were handed over to the family and the final postmortem report would be submitted to the police within two days.

On Sunday, enraged protesters pelted stones at the policemen.

Mohammad Ali, a protester, said that Punjab police habitually killed innocent people.

“The police murdered workers of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek in June 2014 in Lahore and now it is killing other innocent people. We must stand up against this,” he said.

Many protesters directed their criticism towards Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and demanded that he take action to put his force right.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan also expressed grief over the incident and put the blame on the government.

In his tweet Mr Khan said: “Shocked to learn of the death of 2 young men by police in Sadiqabad, Rawalpindi, yesterday. Sharifs have turned Punjab police into killers.”

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered an inquiry into the incident and sought a report from RPO Rawalpindi.

The Chief Minister expressed grief over the incident and said that his sympathies are with the family. He directed officials to take immediate action against the accused in accordance with the law. He vowed to ensure that those responsible are punished and the aggrieved family get justice.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) delegation led by Zahid Kazmi visited the victims’ house in Sadiqabad, which falls in the NA-56 constituency from where the PTI chairman Imran Khan was elected.

PTI former Punjab North General Secretary Zahid Kazmi said that the PML-N made the province as police state and gave police licence to kill innocent people. “From Model Town to Daska and now Rawalpindi, all incidents prove that the Punjab police is providing to protection to people. Instead of arresting and killing terrorists, they are killing innocent people,” he said.

it is enough to prove that the Punjab police is not protecting the public lives and property and instead of arresting or killing the terrorists, it is killing innocent people,” he said.

Meanwhile, those blocked in the traffic jam on Islamabad Expressway demanded that the district government ensure that the road remained open at all times.

A motorist, Naeem Ahmed, said he was forced to use an alternative route to reach Faizabad.

“This road is routinely blocked by protesters. While I sympathise with the family, they must understand that the general public suffers when a road is blocked. We are also victims of police highhandedness, we should not be punished,” he said.

A police official, requesting anonymity, said protesters threw stones at the police officials on the Expressway.

“They even pelted stones at a senior police officer but no action was taken because we understand that the people were aggrieved. The family has already lost two sons; we do not wish to cause them more pain by registering a case against them,” he said.

Station House Officer (SHO) of New Town Police Station Tahir Rehan told Dawn that the police registered a case and conducted raids to arrest the two police officials, Umair Ahmed and Zubair Altaf.

“ASI Mohammad Sharif and SI Mohammad Zaheer have been arrested,” he added.

SHO Rehan said that according to the arrested policemen, the young men were dressed in black and riding a black motorcycle which was being used in criminal activities in the area which is why the policemen tried to stop them.

“However, the officials should not have opened fire,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2015

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