KARACHI: A young man was killed in an exchange of gunfire between police and street criminals on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road on Saturday, the first day of Eid, officials said on Monday.

Police claimed that 25-year-old Masab, a BCom student and the only brother of four sisters, was killed by a bullet fired by one of the six criminals.

Sohrab Goth DSP Khalid Khan told Dawn that five policemen deputed for the security of a senior police officer were having lunch at an eatery near Saima Garden on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road when some people sarcastically told them that “while you are having meal people are being robbed at a nearby roundabout”.

Hearing the taunt, the police rushed to the spot in their mobile van and saw the suspects looting passers-by. The suspects opened fire on police and a bullet hit the rifle of a policeman. They police also returned fire.

Police are waiting for the findings of a forensic report to proceed further

During the exchange of gunfire, a bullet hit the driver of a passing car in the neck, which proved fatal, the DSP said.

The victim, a resident of Metroville-III, was going somewhere with his family.

The DSP said one of the suspects was also wounded in the firing by police. However, he snatched a motorbike from a man, later identified as Mohammed Nasir, and rode away.

Meanwhile, the five policemen, who did not belong to the area police, feared for their own security and fled in order to avoid people’s wrath who gathered at the scene. They were detained later.

The DSP said on information provided by complainant Nasir, the police sent different teams to private and government hospitals and got hold of the wounded suspect, identified as Abdul Razzak, at the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi.

He got admitted to hospital by pretending to be the victim of a robbery near Disco Bakery in Gulshan-i-Iqbal. He told doctors that he along with his wife was riding a motorbike and robbers shot him when he resisted a robbery bid.

As the complainant identified him as the man who snatched his motorbike, the police took him into custody from the hospital on Saturday evening. He suffered a bullet wound in the leg.

He told police that there were a total of six suspects and five of them were still at large.

The police impounded a motorbike from the scene of the crime and one 9mm pistol belonging to the suspects.

The police said a post-mortem examination of the victim student suggested that he was shot with a 9mm pistol.

The held suspect also told the police that he fired shots at the police but a bullet hit the driver of a car.

The DSP, however, said the spent bullet casings found from the crime scene had been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory of police and they were waiting for its final report to proceed further legally against the policemen.

An initial probe revealed that Masab, a student of BCom who is the only brother of four sisters, was killed by firing allegedly carried out by the criminals.

The Mobina Town police registered a case (FIR 162/2018) on the complaint of victim’s cousin Liaquat Ali under Section 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The DSP said that detained suspect Razzak alias Bona had a criminal record as seven FIRs were registered against him at different police stations in the city.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2018