FAISALABAD: Four employees of the Punjab Highway Patrolling Police (PHPP) were taken into custody on charges of opening fire on a car and killing its driver, allegedly without any provocation, near Chak 258-RB, Pharala, on Wednesday night.

The policemen were taken into custody after initial inquiry showed the car riders were unarmed and innocent.

The incident occurred less than a fortnight after a similar episode in Islamabad, where police had shot dead an innocent youth, without any provocation.

A case under sections 34, 201 and 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) has been registered against the suspects on the complaint of one of the car occupants, Awais, of Chak 475-GB, Samundari.

In the first information report, Awais submitted that he, along with Waqas Ahmed and Majid Sattar, was travelling by a car when the PHPP personnel led by Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Shahid Manzoor signalled them to stop at a picket.

The complainant said as the driver, Waqas Ahmed, stopped the car, one of its tyres mistakenly touched the ASI’s foot. The ASI became furious and started hurling abuses at them, he added.

He said, meanwhile, the other policemen pointed their guns at Ahmed, when he objected to the behaviour of the ASI.

To avoid the wrath of the policemen, he said, Ahmed sped away from the spot and the policemen started chasing the car.

Near Chak 258-RB, he said, the panicked driver left the car in an attempt to escape.

Meanwhile, he said, the police party arrived their and Constable Usman Hameed opened fire on Ahmed, without any warning or provocation. The bullet hit Ahmed in the belly and he fell on the ground, he said. Other policemen, he said, started hitting the injured man with kicks and rifle butts.

Meanwhile, he said scores of people gathered on the spot and witnessed the whole episode.

He said apparently to avoid any public reaction the policemen resorted to aerial firing and then fled away with the dead body and the car as well.

Sources said immediately after the incident the officers of the PHPP and the district police ordered a probe into the issue. The probe established that the patrolling team opened fire without any justification.

On the other hand, the police claimed the PHPP team headed by ASI Shahid Manzoor tried to stop a car occupied by four men on the main Samundari Road near Roshan Wala. As the driver did not stop the car, the policemen started chasing it.

It was further claimed that during the chase, the car occupants opened fire on the police which was returned.

At Pharalla village, where the occupants left the car in a bid to escape, it was found out that driver Waqas Ahmed had been injured as a result of the firing. He was immediately shifted to hospital, but he expired, the police said.

The police said following the incident, the PHPP SP and local police started an inquiry that found that the policemen acted beyond the call of duty, and that there was no justification of shooting at “unarmed innocent” people.

Following the killing, the family members of the deceased and other locals staged a protest demonstration and blocked the Dijkot-Samundri Road for traffic. They chanted slogans against the police and demanded exemplary punishment for the killers.City Police Officer Sohail Chaudhry told

Dawn that a five-member committee, led by SSP (investigation), had been constituted to supervise the investigation to ensure that it was on merit. The committee would submit a weekly report on the case’s progress to him, he added.

He said the suspects would be prosecuted under the law and justice would be dispensed. He said no one, including police, was above the law.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2021