BAHAWALNAGAR: The Haroonabad city police’s former SHO has been suspended from service “for his involvement in a fake encounter”.

After booking two policemen of the Haroonabad city police in a case of injuring a man in a fake encounter and opening fire on others while declaring them robbers to impress their higher-ups on Oct 18, the former SHO has been suspended as he was proved “guilty of administrative failure” in a departmental probe.

According to the letter issued by the DPO office on Oct 25, Bakhshan Khan SHO Sub-Inspector Afzal Babar, who was the SHO of the Haroonabad city police station at the time of the incident, had been suspended on the orders of DPO Faisal Gulzar. The city police had booked the SI Fraz Aslam and ASI Abbas Joiya for shooting at and injuring labourer Saifullah in a fake encounter when he, along with other labourers, was on his way home after finishing work at Ghallah Mandi.

The FIR alleged that the policemen were under immense pressure by their higher-ups to arrest robbers on the rampage in the city, therefore, they planned a fake encounter and attacked four labourers to show their performance.

The higher-ups initiated a probe into the matter and SHO Afzal Babar was transferred to the Bakhshan Khan police station and later on Thursday, he was suspended after he was found guilty of administrative failure, sources told Dawn.

On the other hand, the labourers, who were attacked by the police team, and the complainant of the case, Muhammad Yaseen of Sahara Town, uncle of injured Saifullah, had issued affidavits in favour of the police team, saying they were actually attacked by the robbers, sources added.

A police official deputed at the city police station told Dawn that the complainant was forced to record his statement in favour of police by using political links, adding that tactics of threats and offers were also used to take a favourable statement from the labourers.

DPO’s spokesperson Ednan Ali showed his ignorance of the probe, however, he admitted that the SHO had been suspended in connection with the same case.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2022