HYDERABAD: An inspector was killed in a raid at a godown by the customs department to seize smuggled tobacco and cigarettes in Tower Market area within the jurisdiction of Market police station late on Saturday night.

Later, police picked up some family members of Haji Ayub Pathan, owner of the godown, and Shah Mohammad aka Lali Pathan.

According to Additional Collector Customs Omer Shafiq, Ayub and Shah Mohammad fled from the spot.

A team of customs officials led by the collector raided the godown after cordoning off the area for recovering ‘tobacco 2100’ worth Rs7 to Rs8 million. Some of the illegal goods had been seized and loaded, but in the meantime shots were fired. The customs officials also returned the fire, Omer said.

The exchange of fire continued for around five to seven minutes in which customs Inspector Abdul Ghaffar Shaikh was injured. He was taken to Liaquat University Hospital city branch where he was pronounced dead. Shafiq said smuggled goods lying in the godown were sealed.

He confirmed that the customs team returned the fire to deter smugglers. He said Shaikh was the main officer who had been conducting raids for smuggled goods like gutka, foreign cigarette setc. He said his actions had annoyed the smugglers.

Market police have lodged FIR 33/16, but police are not sure if Sheikh was killed in firing by smugglers or accidentally by his own colleagues. A police source confirmed that Ayub’s son had been picked up besides others.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2016