KARACHI: A police team investigating the death of a medical student last week at a time when some policemen were engaged in an encounter with robbers has come to the conclusion that the girl was killed by bullets fired by the law-enforcement personnel.

Sources told Dawn on Saturday that after thorough examination of the evidence, careful reading of a forensic report about spent bullets found at the crime scene and perusal of eyewitness accounts, the inquiry team — headed by DIG Arif Hanif of Crime Investigation Agency and comprising DIG Dr Amin Yousufzai, SSP Nouman Siddiqi and SSP Dr Samiullah — concluded that Nimra Baig was hit by bullets fired by the policemen during their encounter with the bandits in North Karachi.

The inquiry team found that the policemen fired “several shots” and one of the bullets hit Baig, who was travelling in a rickshaw, said the sources.

They said the bullet that hit the student of Dow University of Health Sciences was fired from a distance of about 1,000 yards.

The details of inquiry may be made public soon

The place where the incident took place was deserted and was enveloped in darkness.

In the exchange of fire with the policemen one armed suspect was shot dead while another one was arrested in an injured condition.

The inquiry revealed that the bandits had fired more than seven shots, prompting the policemen to retaliate.

“The details of the inquiry may be made public soon, but the main finding is that the girl lost her life in firing carried out by police.

And definitely it was unintentional and accidental fire,” said a source familiar with the findings.

Police had initially claimed that Baig, 20, was killed by bullets fired by the robbers, but the post-mortem examination carried out at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre revealed that the bullet in question had been fired from a “high-velocity weapon”.

Police had claimed that during a routine patrol, personnel of the Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan police station saw two armed suspects roaming around suspiciously on a motorbike. When the policemen challenged the suspects they opened fire and tried to flee.

They were chased by police and an exchange of gunfire took place near Andaa Mor, within the remit of Sir Syed Town police station.

The claims, however, failed to convince the victim’s family members who called for an independent inquiry into the incident.

Later, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah ordered an inquiry into the tragedy.

The Sindh Assembly also called for a detailed investigation into the incident.

Subsequently, Addi­tional IG Karachi Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh formed the investigation team.

Meanwhile, Sir Syed Town SHO Ilyas Shah told Dawn that they had not received the copy of the inquiry report so far and Nimra Baig’s family had also not approached them for lodging a murder case against the policemen.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2019