KARACHI: A senior police officer conceded on Saturday that a 10-year-old girl was fatally shot by the firing of a policeman during an encounter with suspected robbers in a Defence area on Aug 13.

Regretting the loss of her life, DIG South Javed Alam Odho told a press conference that had the police not killed the robber he would have shot the policeman dead.

He said a bullet fired by police constable Babar during the encounter hit the car of Omar Adil in which the girl, Amal, 10, was seated. She was hit by the bullet and died, he added.

He said that action had been taken against the policeman and his colleague Javed involved in the encounter.

“If the policeman had not fired, the robber might have killed him [constable],” he added.

The DIG South said that he had requested the authorities concerned for replacing the AK-47 rifle as the official weapon of the police since it was highly dangerous.

He said that an inquiry into the case had been completed and on the basis of it he had ordered registration of a case against the policeman and further legal action would be taken.

Narrating details of the incident, the DIG said that at around 10pm on Aug 13, an encounter had taken place on Korangi Road at the crossing of Khayaban-i-Ittehad and Akhtar Colony in which one suspect was killed.

The deceased along with his accomplice had looted 11 citizens on the same night.

Later, the police came to know that a girl was also killed but it was not immediately clear as to whose bullet caused her death.

Two days later, Karachi police chief Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh visited the house of the victim girl in Defence and appointed him (DIG Odho) as the inquiry officer.

The weapons of both the policeman and robber were sent to the forensic science lab.

After receiving the forensic report, examining CCTV footage and information obtained from the police team, it transpired that during the exchange of gunfire, a shot fired by the police hit the vehicle of Omar Adil from behind and the same bullet wounded his daughter, Amal, who died later.

This incident occurred at a time when the robbers were looting a vehicle parked behind the victim girl’s vehicle.

The two policemen were patrolling on a motorbike and they had challenged the robbers.

The DIG said the one bullet which killed the suspect exited from his body, hit the vehicle and claimed the life of the girl.

“The Karachi police are saddened over the loss of an innocent life,” the DIG said, adding that after the tragic incident, the police remained in touch with the victim’s family.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018