DADU: Eight policemen fled the court after the first additional sessions judge of the Model Criminal Trial Court convicted them in a case involving the killing of a young man in a fake police encounter.

The verdict was announced by the first additional sessions judge of the Model Criminal Trial Court, Hasan Ali Kalwar. Inspector Noor Mustafa Pathan, along with seven other police officials, was found guilty of the murder.

According to the court’s decision, the inspector was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined Rs1 million. Other convicted officers — ASI Ghulam Qadir Gopang, ASI Nazir Panhwar, Dost Ali, Abdul Sattar, Ghulam Mustafa, Ilah Bachayo and Imran Ali — were each sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and fined Rs100,000.

The murder case was registered in 2022 under crime number 97 at B-Section police station, Dadu, on the complaint of the victim’s mother, Mumtaz Begum Dhaniyal. She had alleged that police officials staged a fake encounter and killed her son.

Court proceedings confirmed that the young man was unlawfully killed under the cover of a police encounter.

After the verdict was announced, all the convicted police officers fled from the court premises.

The court has ordered the immediate arrest of the absconding convicts to ensure their punishment.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2026