VEHARI: The relatives of one of the two alleged robbers killed during separate police “encounters” in the district on Sunday staged a protest blocking Burewala Road and claimed the deceased Ali Sher Dhudi was a Class X student killed by Machiwal police in a “fake” shootout.

According to Machiwal police, three motorcyclist snatched a bike from a local trader near Chak 557/EB. The trader informed the police on 15 helpline about the incident.

The police claimed that they traced the suspects near Chak 4/WB, who opened fire on them that was retaliated.

Following a shootout, one of the suspects, identified as Ali Sher Dhudi of Chak 19/WB, was found lying dead on the spot, the police claimed.

Another robbery suspect ‘shot dead by accomplices’

District police spokesman Mr Adnan said the two accomplices of the suspect fled away.

He alleged the suspect was involved in six dacoity cases in Machiwal area.

Following the incident, the deceased suspect’s family and other locals staged protest demo0nstrations against the police near V Chowk, Vehari and Pakhi Morr.

The protesters blocked the Burewala Road for three hours, raising slogans against the police.

During the protest, Shakil, father of the deceased Ali Sher, said hi son was a Class X student and was picked by police from an examination centre at Machiwal when he was solving the science paper.

He alleged that later police killed Dhudi in a fake encounter, adding that no case was register in any police station against his son.

The protesters appealed to the Punjab chief minister to order a probe into the killing and a murder case against the police officials involved in this “fake encounter”.

Till the filling of this report, the protest was continuing.

On the other hand, DSP Muhammad Saleem claimed that the allegations leveled by the Ali Sher’s father were baseless. He said that the suspect was wanted in half a dozen dacoity incidents occurring in Machiwal area.

In another “encounter” a suspected robber was killed in Danywal police limits on Sunday morning.

According to police, a suspect, Nafees, of Faisalabad, was being taken by a police team for recovery of looted items when near Shabirabad locality, three accomplices of the suspect opened fire on police.

The police retaliated the fire and after a 30-minute shootout, Nafees was found dead on the spot, while his three accomplices managed to escape.

The police spokesman claimed that the deceased was involved in a dacoity at GOR Chowk, Vehari, two days back.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2023