LAHORE: The Punjab police high command on Saturday re-opened the case of young man Mudassar who was killed in an ‘allegedly staged encounter’ in Kasur for raping and killing a minor girl.

The Punjab police investigation branch has been tasked with re-investigating the case and grilling the then Kasur DPO Ali Nasir Rizvi besides the raiding police team involved in killing Mudassar.

A worker by profession, 21-year-old Mudassar was taken into custody by the Kasur police the same day (Feb 25, 2017) the five-year-old girl was raped and killed, a senior official told Dawn.

He said police decided to re-investigate the murder of Mudassar in police encounter in the light of Zainab’s case in which the DNA test confirmed that prime suspect Imran Arshad was killer of girls in Kasur.

Punjab IG Arif Nawaz has confirmed to Dawn that the case has been re-opened.

“The case [of Mudassar’s killing in a police encounter in Kasur] is being re-investigated,” the IG said.

The police source said apparently it seemed that the decision was made in the wake of the Naqeebullah Mehsud’s murder in an allegedly staged encounter in Karachi.

He said: “After SSP Rao Anwar [in Karachi], Nasir Rizvi is facing allegations of similar nature.”

A number of encounters were reported in the tenure of Nasir Rizvi as DPO Kasur, the official said.

However, it would be premature to say that the scope of investigations would be expanded from Mudassar’s case to all other ‘encounters’ carried out in Kasur during the entire tenure of Nasir Rizvi in the district, he said.

He said the details about the case of Mudassar were sought [from Kasur] and the officers who participated in the encounter in Feb 2017 were asked to appear with their statements before the senior detectives to defend their stance.

A team of senior police officers from investigation branch would visit the crime scene [again] and collect details from Mudassar’s family and witnesses besides other relevant people.

“A meeting to this effect has been called for Monday morning wherein the police officers will finalise the terms of reference to investigate the case,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2018