E-Paper | June 20, 2026

Selfie with toy gun: Schoolboy shot by police in Faisalabad dies

Kashif HussainDawn.com Published June 23, 2015
comments
Whatsapp Channel
Add Dawn as a trusted source
Google Preferred Source

FAISALABAD: A schoolboy who was shot at and injured by police in Faisalabad Monday for taking selfies with a toy pistol died of excessive bleeding.

On Monday, police had opened fire and injured two schoolboys who were taking pictures with a toy pistol on Faisalabad's Susan road.

Take a look: Two schoolboys injured by police

The boys, identified as Farhan, 15, and Fahad,14, were reportedly taking pictures to post them on Facebook with a toy pistol when Faryad Husain, the station house officer (SHO) of Peoples Colony, opened fire on them without any warning.

Both the boys were injured and taken to the district headquarters (DHQ) hospital by police who reportedly escaped after realising that they had made a mistake and that the boys were not armed robbers.

Farhan, whose condition was critical, died of excessive bleeding late on Monday night.

His body was shifted to a mortuary for a post-mortem examination. Following completion of the post-mortem, the body was handed over to family members.

A murder case was registered against SHO Faryad Husain and four other policemen.

Meanwhile, City Police Officer Afzal Kausar constituted a committee — comprising SSP Investigation Faisalabad, SP Madina Town and SP Lyalpur Town — to probe into the killing and submit a report within 24 hours.

The injured Fahad told reporters that Farhan and he were taking pictures when the SHO reached there along with his subordinates and opened fire on them immediately after leaving his vehicle.

Police said the SHO received a call that some armed robbers were looting people on the Susan Road. When police reached the spot, the armed men opened fire on police which was retaliated. Two robbers, including Farhan Iftikhar of Peoples Colony, sustained injuries while their accomplice managed to escape, police alleged.

Our readers are at the heart of everything we do.
Do you have a thought to share or a way we can improve? We’d love to hear it. Reach out to us at feedback@dawn.com.
Pakistan

Read more

Sami Qureshi
Jun 23, 2015 04:00pm
There is no doubt that Pakistan has turned into a POLICE STATE.
Recommend 0
Fahad
Jun 23, 2015 04:00pm
Doesn't seem like an intended murder but still the policeman destroyed a family due to his lack of training to handle such situations and to identify robbers/terrorists. Having said that, can we have a ban on the sale and import toy pistols and toy guns at least for the current years? I don't find any reason why a kid should be playing with one. Really tragic incident. All the condolences with the families of the kids.
Recommend 0
Sharique
Jun 23, 2015 04:01pm
interesting 2 different versions of the story. apparently with current law and order situation in country where terrorist and dacoits roam freely, its a very bad idea to take selfies with a toy gun on road and i would not consider police guilty for shooting them. But actual conculsion can be reached only after inquiry.
Recommend 0
Harmony-1
Jun 23, 2015 04:03pm
Couldn't the trigger happy idiots see they were just boys?
Recommend 0
anon mouse
Jun 23, 2015 04:05pm
Errr ... even if it were a real gun you don't just go and shoot someone like that. Police procedures worldwide call for giving fair warning, alas ours hasn't apparently seen any training whatsoever.
Recommend 0
mian m amin.
Jun 23, 2015 04:11pm
Who allowed toy guns import needs to be located . Such tragedies have occurred in USA and UK .The SHO,s arrest may or may not satisfy the aggrieved , there is most urgent need to take out all such toys from markets to prevent more accidental killings .The action of the police officer needs to be investigated professionally and not emotionally .
Recommend 0
Ahmed
Jun 23, 2015 04:18pm
This is sad. But in current situation you can not blame the police entirely. A warning shot could have avoided the tragedy. But taking pictures with a (toy) gun in public was really a bad idea. Toy guns looking to be real became such a big problem 20 years ago that by law toy makers have to put a big red muzzle on the toy so that police can know its a toy. Why did they run away - if it was true mistake - why did they escape. The US is even worse they have killed three unarmed people in the last two months for not listening. Due to terrorism police is scared and they don't give anyone a second chance. Shoot first ask later.
Recommend 0
Sharique
Jun 23, 2015 04:21pm
@anon mouse There are many stories here in Germany and EU recently too where a person carrying a knife or toy gun were shot dead by police. Its fault of the boys taking selfies. In case police giving warning, real terrorist or dacoits could have used this time to fire back at police
Recommend 0
Khwaja
Jun 23, 2015 04:23pm
Our Power players have no sense whatsoever. This is STATE-GARDI.
Recommend 0
Fakhir
Jun 23, 2015 04:27pm
Sad but asked for tragedy. RIP
Recommend 0
Ali
Jun 23, 2015 04:28pm
Pakistan police must be equipped with on the body and in-car cameras and must turn it on before reaching the spot to initiate any sort of interaction with the people. Although the situation in pakistan is sensitive due to terrorist activities and these police might not have intentionally wanted to kill the boys, yet the police should have warned them first and asked them to lay the weapon and surrender. They should not just start shooting and killing. There is a difference between police and decoits. And I dont believe it is the right thing to shoot somenone even if he was a robber, unless the robber threatened or opened fire. Police can always chase him and apprehend him. Robbery and murder and two different things.
Recommend 0
Talking Point
Jun 23, 2015 04:33pm
Real guns cannot make out toy guns , yet talking about pigeons. Paranoia at its worst. Feel sorry for the extinguished light of hope for his family.
Recommend 0
Noor
Jun 23, 2015 04:38pm
who is responsible for this innocent death, i feel it is inept gov who did not pay any head to training of police force and has only one focus to tame their political opponents with use of police Very sad incident
Recommend 0
Human First
Jun 23, 2015 04:40pm
Many such incidents have been taking place mainly because of cowardliness of some government officials. They do carry weapons but get so scared when they see the same in someone,s else hand and they just fire in the panic.
Recommend 0
Rabz
Jun 23, 2015 04:42pm
How sad
Recommend 0
Kashmiri
Jun 23, 2015 04:50pm
Extremely sad news but I do NOT blame the police.
Recommend 0
chodhary
Jun 23, 2015 05:05pm
First of a kind... selfie-related deaths in Pakistan. When will this selfie-madness stop?
Recommend 0
Zuhaib
Jun 23, 2015 05:05pm
weapon & selfi..... deadly combo..!!
Recommend 0
Murad
Jun 23, 2015 05:18pm
Don't they give training to the police there? He should not have shot them immediately just like that even if it was a real gun.
Recommend 0
mmh
Jun 23, 2015 05:25pm
In Kashmir army had to apologize after shooting 15 year old driving a truck and didn't stop after warning . Can we expect the same from police and government?
Recommend 0
mmh
Jun 23, 2015 05:27pm
@Kashmiri if it was in Kashmir you would have blamed police and army
Recommend 0
JP
Jun 23, 2015 05:28pm
@Ali > Pakistan police must be equipped with on the body and in-car cameras and must turn it on before reaching the spot to initiate any sort of interaction with the people. Are you talking about Pakistan that is having trouble to supply electricity for more than a few hours or did you just mistype US?
Recommend 0
Iqbal
Jun 23, 2015 05:45pm
Very tragic and sad story. For future the solution is having good honorable trained police officers who do a great job and are not there to take bribes.
Recommend 0
Asim Munir
Jun 23, 2015 05:57pm
Given the circumstances in Pakistan, people must act responsibly so that such innocent killings don't happen accidentally.
Recommend 0
Abdullah
Jun 23, 2015 06:11pm
I see everyone is blaming the police - and justifiably so. However; in a country where security people do not have any security due to all the terrorist/taliban attacks, everyone is on the edge. You cannot take a chance - one mistake can take away tens of lives. We need to ask ourselves why our teen aged kids would be tempting to post picture with guns on facebook. When gun becomes part of your lives, such accidents would happen. Look at what happened couple of weeks ago in the church in USA
Recommend 0
Syed Ahmed, Canada
Jun 23, 2015 06:12pm
Has the Police gone mad. The Police Chief and the trigger happy Policemen mut be tried for coldblooded murder.
Recommend 0
FOMI
Jun 23, 2015 06:20pm
Pathetic. Where we are heading towards. Police you are trained for this but you always act immaturely, unprofessionally.
Recommend 0
hamza
Jun 23, 2015 06:21pm
it is complete fault of the parents... police cannot be blamed
Recommend 0
M.Talha Imran
Jun 23, 2015 06:25pm
Well done public, you have a big art to criticize especially Police. Did you ever try to put your position in place of police ? We are crossing the border of terrorism, in the background what the public is functioning to curb the terrorism? Don't criticize immediately without deep scrutiny because the facts are the something else what we see through our naked eye.
Recommend 0
Listener
Jun 23, 2015 06:42pm
POLICE man did his job. There is no way he can judge that is a real gun or fake. Parents shouldn't buy toys guns to their kids. What if that was real gun and they kill the coup?
Recommend 0
ukz
Jun 23, 2015 06:51pm
Keeping in view law n order situation in Pakistan, police are at life risk. Police has power but power comes with responsibility. This is irresponsible act by police officer and should be punished.
Recommend 0
saturn
Jun 23, 2015 06:53pm
The irony of the situation is that people commenting here are all for banning toy guns, but are perfectly fine with arming their teachers and giving weapons training to the schoolchildren. I beg the moderators of Dawn to publish this. It is something that needs to be said.
Recommend 0
Nauman
Jun 23, 2015 07:03pm
Keeping in view the current situation it is not at all advisable to take a toy gun and display it publicly because no one can differentiate between real and toy pistol. The elders especially the parents should have teached the kids not to do such thing.
Recommend 0
khalid pervez qureshi.
Jun 23, 2015 07:11pm
Root cause of such brutalities and mistakes of police are inadiquate training comprising no quality, no enough time, no accoutability of instructers, lack of face reading, body language, police without proper training but equiped with smg is a high risk in our society.
Recommend 0
Nabeel
Jun 23, 2015 07:14pm
My condolences to the family, kids should not be playing with such toys in public as it could create a doubt, but on the other end rank of an SHO is experienced, there could be other ways to tackle the situation other than shoot them, i don't understand why does not our police shoot them on legs or any other part so that they cannot escape and then get them n investigate which could lead them to bigger leads
Recommend 0
Adnan Anwar
Jun 23, 2015 07:37pm
No it is just a case of incompetent policemen not following protocol of engagement.
Recommend 0
Farhan Imaan
Jun 23, 2015 07:54pm
Sad incident, All the condolences with the families of the kids, Blaming the kids playing with the Toy Guns isn't going to resolve any issue, Indeed Police needs to be trained unlike the statement which Police has given after this incident which shows how Improfessional Pubjab police is.
Recommend 0
PHILOSOPHER (from Japan)
Jun 23, 2015 08:00pm
Without any warning and shooting kids......surprised me...
Recommend 0
Nadeem
Jun 23, 2015 08:09pm
My heart is crying for the family who has lost their beloved sons. But these days where the situation is very sensitive a plastic toy gun could be the reason of any dreadful moment. I don't blame police man hundred percent..
Recommend 0
neutral
Jun 23, 2015 08:26pm
Well after given warning police may be thinking they are robber and run away and our public will blame police People should have knowledge that country security situation is bad so be carefull Big gangster use child for robbery Sad outcome of illiteracy
Recommend 0
Ahmed
Jun 23, 2015 09:20pm
Both, the boys and Police to be blamed for tragic accident.
Recommend 0
M Jamal
Jun 23, 2015 09:25pm
Very sad as the boy murder is due to the system based on nepotism and incompetency. We need a complete overhaul.When.
Recommend 0
Zeeshan
Jun 23, 2015 09:44pm
This is outrageous. Kids can't even play with toys without the incompetent police of Pakistan shooting them. I hope severe action is taken against the parties involved.
Recommend 0
Concerned
Jun 23, 2015 09:50pm
While this is a very sad incident and I feel sorry for the young man and his family, there needs to some understanding given to Police and the circumstances. Is this not a responsibility of adults that they not stop youngsters from getting such toys that look like real guns? Police is dealing with heightened state of crime, terrorism and paranoia in the society. I agree that police can benefit from more training but at the same time why are such toys in market that don't have orange markers showing that they are toys? My point is that this incident may not be simple enough to just put blame on one person. I hope there is through investigation and the government takes corrective actions.
Recommend 0
Kazim
Jun 23, 2015 10:21pm
I understand the actions of the SHO, police is hyper-active these days (as they should be) due to the risk of a terrorist attack and activities of criminals throughout the country. It is understandable why SHO didn't waste any time in drawing his weapon and using it. How was expected to know that the gun used by these teenagers wasn't real and just a toy?
Recommend 0
Naseer
Jun 23, 2015 10:47pm
Tragic incident, but you can't blame the police, when terriioism is on rise , maybe the Sho at that time took the right decision, In the West and Europe you won't find toy guns in market, Govt should ban toy guns
Recommend 0
muhammad
Jun 23, 2015 10:58pm
@Sami Qureshi if its become police state then police never been beaten by lawyers or any one else
Recommend 0
Ahmed Awaiz
Jun 23, 2015 11:25pm
@Sami Qureshi: many in pakistan who have not been abroad do not have an idea how brutal police states can be. All such peoplr shoulf visit Saudia USA israel Iran etc. Compared to these countries pakistan is literally police free state. Our police needs our support in its fight against hydra headed enemy of terrorism.
Recommend 0
ALI
Jun 23, 2015 11:58pm
@Sharique ,Law and enforcement agencies cannot open fire without warning or being challenged
Recommend 0
mechie
Jun 24, 2015 12:03am
Nothing political or religious here. Just a case of gross negligence. I won't say that what happened is fine, but given the situation in our country, this was inevitable. I feel sorry for the loss of the families of those boys.
Recommend 0
Saadahgul Khan
Jun 24, 2015 12:25am
I am intrigued by the police report that says it all: "Police said the SHO received a call that some armed robbers were looting people on the Susan Road. When police reached the spot, the armed men opened fire on police which was retaliated. Two robbers, including Farhan Iftikhar of Peoples Colony, sustained injuries while their accomplice managed to escape, police alleged."
Recommend 0
Anonymous
Jun 24, 2015 12:40am
@Sharique : You can find so many people carrying licensed Pistols in Pakistan, Police is not suppose to open Fire unless they confirm the situation.
Recommend 0
Zala
Jun 24, 2015 12:47am
Police fired at the boys because they were from poor family. In Pakistan there are two sets of rules, one for the poor and one for the elite class.
Recommend 0
azi
Jun 24, 2015 01:34am
police can not be blamed for the incidence ....at this stage even a toy gun some of them look really real, police reacted before any unwanted incidents. How is one to distinguish from so far if it is a toy or real until you approach and then get fired upon if was real. so it was an accident....not the police but the parents of the the two boys should be arrested for letting them play with guns openly....selfies could have been taken inside the house.
Recommend 0
azi
Jun 24, 2015 01:37am
@Harmony-1 ...really but it is pakistan where anybody can use a gun , even blow themselves up...if it turned out to be a real gun and few killed then the police would be held responsible ??? now it turned out to be a toy gun still we blame the police.
Recommend 0
azi
Jun 24, 2015 01:39am
@anon mouse ....warning ??? you kidding in Pakistan warning means get shot.
Recommend 0
AW
Jun 24, 2015 02:15am
In order to subdue suspects who appear to be not complying with the Police orders, the Police should shoot on their leg or arm in order to inflict a non-life threatening injury so that they can be arrested and investigated for possible conviction. Police should never have the license to kill suspects. The policeman who killed the youth must be arrested and tried for conviction in the court. Formation of investigation committee consisting of police officers is absurd and for public deception
Recommend 0
Mahmood Ayub
Jun 24, 2015 03:13am
Very sad tragedy. Cant blame law enforcement since they are a bit 'on edge' given the ongoing regional security environment. I blame the parents for not imparting some common sense into them - last and final blame goes on them for carrying a toy gun which looked 'real enough'
Recommend 0
Mahmood Ayub
Jun 24, 2015 03:13am
@Sami Qureshi i'd rather have a police state than have a state with security problems
Recommend 0
L.Ahmad
Jun 24, 2015 03:35am
Senseless killing of an innocent boy. Police officer should be charged and punished for his reckless action.
Recommend 0
Shahid
Jun 24, 2015 04:14am
Why don't they teach the police to shoot on legs when needed.
Recommend 0
Akil Akhtar
Jun 24, 2015 05:09am
This has happened often in the west also. In these times of heightened fear and terrorism we need to educate our citizens also on how to behave on the streets. we cannot expect our security to wait for the terrorist to fire at them to make sure the guns are not toys. Our problem is the citizens are never told that they have some responsibilities also.
Recommend 0
Sarcastic
Jun 24, 2015 07:11am
A tragic incident of course but can't blame police right away. There are so many civilian and on duty deaths in last decade that such mistakes by police is not unusual. Kids inspired by toy guns too is the outcome of weapon loving society. We cannot rule out such tragedies altogether but can reduce when whole society adopt a behavior of responsibility and start analyzing the situation instead of reacting.
Recommend 0
Kalim Imtiaz
Jun 24, 2015 10:58am
Yes, SHO is guilty because he showed cruelty.
Recommend 0
Qasim
Jun 24, 2015 11:21am
@Listener indeed you are right. but Police should warn to surrender before opening the fire
Recommend 0
khanm
Jun 24, 2015 12:31pm
@Sami Qureshi ... it has always been for poor and common people... Police in Pakistan is a barrier,a protection for rich, powerful and corrupts....
Recommend 0
khanm
Jun 24, 2015 12:37pm
@Fahad... i do understand it was an accident but maligning the facts by police is utterly disgusting. i do agree under the given circumstances play with a toy pistol should be banned and discouraged.. we all are on the edge to be declared as being paranoia
Recommend 0
khanm
Jun 24, 2015 12:38pm
@Sharique take a police report from police.... wonder what the truth would be...
Recommend 0
Mamoon
Jun 24, 2015 02:02pm
I dont blame the police officer involved here. Because if u see the picture they were taking, shocked me. Why did they bother to stage such drama at busy road?? But the police man should have fired at leg or other part.
Recommend 0

Most Popular

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09

Latest Stories

Opinion

Editorial

Pakistan’s moment
Updated 20 Jun, 2026

Pakistan’s moment

Pakistan’s diplomats are second to none, and if these states seek to engage this country constructively, a new modus vivendi for the subcontinent can be reached.
Menacing water plans
20 Jun, 2026

Menacing water plans

IN April last year, India suspended the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty, which contains no provision allowing it to...
World Refugee Day
20 Jun, 2026

World Refugee Day

WORLD Refugee Day, observed today around the globe, marks 75 years since the adoption of the 1951 convention ...
Digital deal
19 Jun, 2026

Digital deal

THINGS have moved rapidly where the Iran-US memorandum of understanding is concerned. While the physical document ...
Failing the public
19 Jun, 2026

Failing the public

WHETHER it is Sindh’s struggle to secure clean drinking water or Balochistan’s difficulty in improving the...
Crushed lives
19 Jun, 2026

Crushed lives

COURTS and commissions have often been up in arms over the health and ecological hazards associated with...
Dawn News English Podcasts
Subscribe