RAWALPINDI: A judicial inquiry has been started and a police team formed in order to probe into the circumstances under which two brothers were killed in an alleged ‘encounter’ with the police on Thursday in the limits of the Sadar Bairooni police.

Following the directives of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, City Police Officer (CPO) Rawalpindi Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi asked for a judicial inquiry into the matter and also constituted a police team led by Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Tariq Irfan to investigate the killing of the two brothers.

Spokesperson for the interior ministry, Sarfaraz Hussein said the interior minister had taken serious notice of the matter and ordered for a provincial government or a judicial inquiry as well as a departmental inquiry.

Brothers Irfan and Wasim were injured during the ‘encounter’ with the police Wednesday night and died in the District Headquarters Hospital on Thursday. Their relatives held a protest and put the bodies on Chakri Road.

The incident happened with a police party led by Station House Officer (SHO) Sajid Mehmood set out to arrest a suspected car thief, Abdul Manan, who was wanted by the police. The two brothers who died on Thursday were said to be Abdul Manan’s brothers.

The police claim that when they got to the thief’s residence in Quaid-i-Azam Colony, the suspect opened fire at the police during which SHO Mehmood was injured and Head Constable Shahzeb was hit in the head by a bullet fired by Abdul Manan’s accomplice.

“Wasim Anwarul Haq, who was one of the brothers who died today, was also an accomplice of the suspect and fired at me, but I escaped,” Sub-inspector Liaquat Ali, who was part of the raiding party, said in his FIR.

He also said in his FIR that the police retaliated by firing at the suspects in self-defence.

The police claimed that Abdul Manan and his accomplices fired at the police party while women in the house threw stones at them from the roof of the house. In the meantime, the main suspect who was wanted by the police managed to escape.

The police claims to have taken the two injured brothers to the hospital, where they later died.

The police also arrested two other brothers of Abdul Manan and registered a case under section Anti-Terrorism Act against them.

Irfan Asif worked with the Atomic Energy and Wasim Anwar worked with the Agriculture Development Bank.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017