ISLAMABAD: Police claimed on Thursday that a suspect was killed during an encounter hours after his accomplices were able to get him freed from police custody.

Two encounters took place in Golra and Bhara Kahu after an eight-hour interval. The suspect killed in the encounter was arrested in connection with the murder of a delivery boy on June 5, police said.

According to the first information report (FIR), the suspect had told police that he along with his accomplices injured a man in F-9 Park and later threw the weapon used in the crime in a nullah in E-11.

The suspect said he would take them to the spot (in E-11) to get it, the FIR stated. However, when a police team accompanied by the suspect went there, four persons who had disembarked from a white vehicle appeared there and opened fire on them. This led to the first encounter. The persons were able to get the handcuffed suspect freed. According to the FIR, the encounter took place at 7:10pm on Wednesday.

Another FIR, registered at Bhara Kahu police station, stated that four persons appeared at Kiani Road and attacked a police team comprising the station house officer (SHO) and seven other policemen. The attackers escaped from the spot, the FIR stated, adding later the body of a 30-year-old man was found when the police checked the area.

This man was killed by the firing of his own accomplices, it said, adding a Kalashnikov was also found near the body. The deceased was mentioned as unidentified in the FIR.

According to a police spokesman, the suspect who was set free by his accomplice in E-11 was the one killed in the encounter at Bhara Kahu. He said the suspect had been in police custody for the last three to four days.

He said the police chief in a press conference said that the suspect involved in the murder of the food delivery boy was killed during a police encounter, adding on June 5 the suspect along with his accomplices had shot dead Qasim Awan, a 25-year-old graduate from Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) and an employee of Food Panda during a mugging attempt near F9 Park, Islamabad.

Raids and search operations were being conducted to arrest the other suspects.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2022