NAROWAL: An overseas Pakistani’s son claims to have shot dead six alleged robbers who took away valuables from their house more than a month ago and remained at large.

The Noorkot police registered a case of the killing of six people on the report of SHO Inspector Muhammad Arif against Osama Younis, son of Muhammad Younis, and an accomplice.

The FIR states that police had received a call on 15 and Muhammad Javed told them that he was standing outside his outhouse when Osama Younis, son of Muhammad Younis, who resides abroad, and an unidentified person on a motorcycle came to him and Osama told him that they had shot dead the robbers who targeted his house a month and a half ago.

A heavy contingent of police responded to the call and cordoned off the area near the Noorkot railway station.

SHO Muhammad Arif said one of the persons killed in the firing had been identified as Muhammad Ashraf Khan, a resident of Shakargarh tehsil’s Mandikhel area. He said all those killed in the firing were members of an inter-district robbers’ gang.

Investigation and forensic teams of the Noorkot police obtained evidence from the place of incident.

Younis had come to Pakistan on holiday from abroad and on the night of March 30, seven robbers broke through the outer wall of his house and held up the family. The robbers tortured the family members and looted 45 tolas of gold jewellery, Rs550,000 and other valuables.

The Shah Garib police registered a case against the suspects on the complaint of Younis. The complainant claimed that he visited the offices of the Narowal DPO and the Shakargarh DSP but police failed to arrest the robbers.

The Narowal police said 13 cases had been registered against Ashraf Khan between 2011 and 2015.

Aitzaz Bashir, spokesman for the district police, said Osama Younis and Ashraf were friends. He said Osama suspected that Ashraf and his accomplices had targeted his house. He said the other five were yet to be identified.

IGP Rao Sardar Ali Khan has taken notice of the incident and sought a report from the regional police officer of Gujranwala.

He ordered that special raiding teams should be formed to arrest of killers saying no one would be allowed to take law into his hands.

Some people criticised police for not proving equal to the task of arresting gangsters as there have been dozens of robberies in Narowal district in the last few months. They said police failed to arrest any gangster.

Advocate Fayyaz Gorayah said it’s sad that people were forced to commit serious crimes due to a lack of protection and injustice. He said an inquiry should be held to take strict legal action against the perpetrators.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2022