BAHAWALNAGAR: The district police officer (DPO) late on Tuesday night transferred 10 of the 11 members of a Madrasa police raiding team which shot dead a pregnant woman and injured her husband in an alleged police encounter on March 25.

The DPO also suspended the SHO from service after the inquiry officer in his initial investigation found the officials guilty of negligence.

SP Investigation Farooq Anwar in his report (a copy of which is available with Dawn) which was sent to the office of Bahawalnagar DPO Zaffar Buzdar on March 29 also showed his concern for not displacing the raiding team members even after they were being investigated. The letter said the officials could influence the inquiry and should haven been posted to another place till the completion of the probe.

On the other hand, Faryad Ali, father of victim Shabbir, expressed his dissatisfaction over the decision and said that instead of serving strict punishment, the decision to just transfer the officials who publicly killed innocent woman Shabana (his daughter-in-law) and crippled the other was grave injustice.

He said the inquiry officer was one of the policemen who forced him to issue an affidavit in favour of the raiding team officials when he was pleading police to return his daughter-in-law’s body. Later, they buried the body while declaring it unclaimed when he refused to accept their demands, he added. He alleged that despite court order, police were refusing to hand his daughter-in-law’s body over to him. And police were not even sharing the copy of Shabana’s autopsy report with him despite the passage of four days, he said. He said he was still getting threats from officials of the district police and demanded that the inquiry of his case be transferred to another district.

While confirming Faryad Ali’s concerns regarding local police officials, sources told Dawn that the Bahawalpur RPO had also initiated an inquiry into the matter under the supervision of SP Investigation/SP Regional Investigation Branch (RIB) Bahawalpur Arsalan Wahid on March 27. He said the SP along with the team visited the crime scene, recorded statements from the victim’s family and the officials and collected evidence.

Sources claimed the SP left the district while showing his anger against the district administration because the team had collected irrefutable evidence of the killing of the innocent woman. They said that the higher-ups were forced to transfer the officials.

DPO’s spokesperson Shehzad Ishfaq said the RPO had initiated a separate inquiry over the matter under the supervision of the SP RIB. He said merit would be ensured in both inquiries. He said police were ready to share a copy of the autopsy report with Faryad but he did not contact.

Police did not receive any court order about handing over the body to Faryad yet, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2022