TOBA TEK SINGH: Three Jaranwala Elite Force constables were suspended from service and arrested on Wednesday for allegedly shoot in at and injuring two Class IX students and later portraying the incident as an “encounter with robbers”.

Taking notice of the incident, Operations SSP Rana Abdul Wahab has suspended the constables, Naveed, Arshad and Tariq, from service and got them arrested. He also formed a three-member committee headed by Jaranwala SP to probe into the incident.

Sources say that the students, Ali Kamran and Dastgir, both residents of Chak 353-GB, Kot Kabeer, were returning home after participating in a Eid Mild procession at Jaranwala on a motorcycle.

When they reached near the farm house of one Rai Haider Ali, the Elite Force constables allegedly opened fire on them without any apparent reason, leaving Kamran and Dastgir critically wounded.

They were shifted to Jaranwala Tehsil Headquarters Hospital for treatment.

The two other students, who remained unhurt in the incident, said they had changed the route to avoid possible robbery, but were targeted by policemen, who later falsely declared them dacoits.

The sources say that the injured students have no criminal record.

Tortured to death: A youth was kidnapped and tortured to death on Wednesday over suspicion of stealing cricket bats of a cricket club’s players on Wednesday on Cinema Road, Faisalabad.

Complainant Rukhsana Shafiq, mother of the victim Usama, a resident of Gulberg Colony, said in the FIR that the suspect, Shahan, a cricket player of an indoor cricket club located on Cinema Road, and his 10 accomplices kidnapped her son.

She said the suspects took Usama to their cricket club where they severely tortured him and his friend Samraiz Khalid, already there, accusing them of stealing bats from the club.

When her son’s condition deteriorated, he was shifted to the Allied Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

His friend Samraiz was under treatment in the hospital.

The police have arrested Shahan and were conducting raids to nab his accomplice.

A case has been registered under sections 302, 365, 148 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against the suspects.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2024