LAHORE: A Dolphin Squad police official was shot dead allegedly when armed drug peddlers ambushed him in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) while he was returning home after performing his duty on Monday.

The police official, Ghulam Qasim, a resident of Dera Chahal village, located on the outskirt of the Cantonment Lahore, was father of two minor children.

In the attack, Qasim received multiple bullets and succumbs to his wounds, while the attackers fled the scene, resorting to aerial fire.

A police official said Qasim was returning home after performing his duty when he was targeted.

He said police teams rushed to the scene on being informed about the incident and shifted the body to the city morgue for an autopsy. The Defence C police later lodged a murder case on the complaint of Qasim’s father Taj Din.

In the first information report (FIR), Taj Din nominated three suspects -- Rizwan alias Bodi, Irfan, Ghulam Dastghir -- and their two unidentified accomplices.

Taj Din stated in the FIR that the suspects had been running a drugs supply network at Chahal village for the last many years and police had conducted raids on their houses. The attackers suspected Qasim was behind these raids and harboured grudge against him, he added.

A police official said the alleged killers were very dangerous habitual criminals.

He said police teams had been formed for the arrest of the suspects nominated in the FIR.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2022