LAHORE: A suspect arrested in goods transport owner Ameer Balaj Tepu’s murder case, Ahsan Shah, was allegedly killed during a crossfire between the Organized Crime Unit (OCU) of the Lahore police and some armed men “who wanted to free” the latter, late on Friday.

The police authorities claim Ahsan Shah was killed when the OCU police were taking him to a location in Shadbagh area in connection with the investigation of the case, when the suspect’s brother, along with unidentified armed men, attacked the police team.

They claimed the attackers wanted to free Shah from the custody, and the police retaliated in self defence, ensuing a crossfire between the two sides.

During the exchange of fire, Shah was seriously wounded in the attackers’ firing, the police officials claimed, adding that he was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

They said the Iqbal Town OCU team consisted of Inspector Shakeel Butt and others, who escaped unhurt in the incident.

Ameer Balaj, the owner of a goods transport network, was shot dead in a wedding ceremony in Chung area in February this year.

He was son of underworld don Arif Ameer alias Tepu Truckanwala, who was also murdered at the Lahore airport in 2010 in an armed attack.

Similarly, Ameer’s grandfather Ameerudin alias Billa Truckanwala had fallen victim to the decades old enmity. The news of Balaj’s gruesome killing had elicited grief and fury among his supporters.

Following Balaj’s murder, the police had arrested his confidant Ahsan Shah when it transpired that he connived with a network of gangsters who had planned the killing.

An official says that Shah was said to be very close to Balaj and his family for the last many years.

He said that during the investigation of the high-profile murder case, the police identified the key players in the network allegedly involved in planning Balaj’s killing. They included two notorious underworld gangsters of the city -- Khawaja Tareef alias Teefi Butt and Khawaja Aqeel alias Gogi Butt.

In different raids, he said, the police arrested three more suspects, including two shooters who had opened fire on Balaj in the wedding ceremony, and a ‘spare hit man’ who was to act if required.

These three accused were in jail these days, the police official said, adding that Teefi Butt managed to flee to the UK, while Gogi Butt was said to be in hiding in Karachi.

To a question, the police official said that the OCU had strong evidence that Teefi Butt was directly involved in the murder of Balaj. However, there were conflicting reports regarding the involvement of Gogi Butt in the murder, he added.

On the other hand, the sources claimed that the OCU concocted the story of death of Ahsan Shah during crossfire as it was a “template for extra-judicial killings”.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2024