Police on Sunday registered a case against four suspected robbers for the murder of a 20-year-old medical student in Karachi who was killed in crossfire between police and the 'robbers' on Friday night.

The first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with DawnNewsTV was filed against the suspected robbers under sections pertaining to police encounter, murder, attempted murder and terrorism.

The FIR was registered at the Sir Syed police station on the complaint of policeman Adnan who serves at the Noorjahan police station.

According to the report, Constable Adnan was patrolling near Farooq Azam Masjid in K Sector of North Nazimabad with other policemen when he first encountered the suspects and cautioned them to stop. The suspects, however, responded by opening fire and attempted to flee.

Subsequently, the policemen chased the four suspects who were riding two motorcyles. One of the two bikes managed to escape due to traffic near the Sakhi Hassan round. The second bike turned to the Anda Mor area where another encounter took place.

According to the FIR, both the suspected robbers were injured during the encounter. Later, one of the two succumbed to his wounds. Police also recovered two pistols from the possession of the two suspects.

The FIR stated that police later discovered a girl was fatally injured during the crossfire.

Although police claim that Nimra Baig, 20, was killed by firing by the 'robbers' on Friday night, a post-mortem examination carried out at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre revealed that the bullet that hit her was fired by a "high-speed velocity weapon", which apparently refers to sub-machine guns in the use of police. Pistols commonly used by robbers do not qualify as high-speed velocity weapons.

A police official said that an investigation team was probing the matter. He said that both the suspects hailed from Rahim Yar Khan.

Earlier on Saturday, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had taken notice of the killing and directed the police to find out whose negligence caused Nimra's death.

Probe team begins investigation

Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Arif Hanif of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) — who is head of the inquiry team formed by the city police chief — told Dawn that the probe body had visited the hospital and recorded the statement of the ambulance driver who shifted the injured girl to the hospital.

The team also met with doctors and independent witnesses as there was a multi-storey building where the incident took place.

The CIA chief said that the constables who took part in the encounter told them that they had been ‘chasing’ the suspects for eight kilometres and avoided firing due to the presence of crowds there. The constables claimed that they ‘retaliated’ at Anda Mor because it was an ‘open place’.

DIG Hanif said, however, that they were trying to ‘verify’ the statement of the policemen.

The inquiry team head said they have also received the medical report and were examining it.

Furthermore, the injured suspect was also now in a position to give his statement.

DIG Hanif appreciated the fact that the city police chief had assigned the inquiry to the CIA instead of West Zone police as the CIA's basic purpose was to ensure “neutral and independent probe to ascertain as to what really happened”.

He hoped that they would be in a position to submit their findings of the incident on Monday.