KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Monday issued notices to the Karachi police chief and others on an application seeking investigation into the killing of five suspects by police in an alleged ‘fake’ encounter in the Defence Housing Authority.

Police claimed to have killed five ‘suspects’ for allegedly entering a bungalow near Yasrab Imambargah in DHA Phase 4 with the intention to commit a robbery on Nov 27.

Mohammad Saqib filed an application under sections 176, 176(2) read with Section 174(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code naming the additional inspector of police, Karachi, provincial health secretary, police surgeon and station house officer of the Gizri police station as respondents.

The judicial magistrate (South) directed the AIG Karachi and the others to appear before him with their respective replies, and fixed the matter for Dec 8 (today).

Five men were killed on Nov 27 by police on suspicion of being robbers

In the plea, the applicant submitted that he is the brother of Abbas, who worked as a driver in a bungalow in the DHA. He further submitted that the officials of the Gizri police station took him away from his owner’s bungalow on Nov 21 and killed him in their custody, but showed it as an encounter and also registered a criminal case against him.

The applicant said that he filed an application with the Gizri SHO asking him to conduct a post-mortem examination of his slain brother in his presence, adding that the investigating officer of the case sent a letter to the police surgeon of the Civil Hospital Karachi for the victim’s post-mortem in the presence of the applicant.

The applicant said the police surgeon wrote a letter to the provincial health secretary.

The applicant’s counsel, Shahid Ali Soomro, contended that since the police officials had “kidnapped” the applicant’s brother from the residence of his employer and then killed him in an alleged staged encounter, therefore, in order to save their skin the officials did not contact the court of law for the purpose of getting a post-mortem of the victim conducted in the presence of the judicial magistrate, which was a common legal procedure.

He said the body of the victim had been kept in cold storage of the Chhipa ambulance service and no post-mortem had yet been conducted.

Therefore, the court issued directives to the Karachi police chief and others for conducting an inquiry into the killing of Abbas and medico-legal procedures in the presence of a judicial magistrate.

Earlier, employer of the victim Laila Parveen had also moved an application under Section 22-A of the CrPC seeking directions for the superintendent of police (Complaints Cell) and the SHO of the Gizri police station to lodge a criminal case against the police officials involved in the killing of her driver Abbas in an alleged fake encounter.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2020