KARACHI, July 21: A suspect, killed by police in an alleged encounter on July 11, was not the notorious criminal, Mashooq Brohi, as announced earlier at a news conference by the city police chief.

This was revealed in a report of the inquiry committee constituted by the Sindh police chief following some reports which disputed the authenticity of the encounter and the identity of the man killed.

Taking action on the report, the IGP Sindh disbanded the Lyari Task Force, responsible for the encounter, and ordered registration of an FIR on the complaint of the heirs/relatives of the man killed as Mashooq Brohi.

The city police chief, Niaz Siddiqui, had claimed at a news conference on July 11 that the Lyari Task Force killed a notorious criminal, involved in numerous cases of kidnapping for ransom, in an encounter in Gadap Town.

However, family of the notorious criminal refused to identify him as Mashooq Brohi, according to reports appearing in a section of press. This had created doubts over the police claim.

Taking cognizance of the reports suggesting that the deceased could be one, Ghulam Rasool, and not Mashooq Brohi, the IGP Sindh constituted a high-level inquiry committee to ascertain facts.

The committee was headed by the Additional IG Sindh, Tariq Jamil, with SSP Investigation Zone-II Mir Zubair Mehmood, TPO Shah Faisal Sultan Khwaja, and DPO Jamshoro Pir Farid Jan being its members.

The committee submitted its report suggesting that the suspect killed by the police team was not Mashooq Brohi but some other person.

After receipt of the report, the IGP Jehangir Mirza immediately disbanded the Lyari Task Force, a spokesman for the Sindh police said.

He said that the IG had also directed the TPO Lyari, Omar Shahid, and the SP Lyari Task Force, Mohammad Aslam Khan, to immediately report to the Central Police Office.

The other members of the Lyari Task Force were directed to report to the city police chief.

The Lyari Task Force had been constituted in January with the aim of containing the growing incidents of crime in Lyari and eliminating the warring criminal gangs, one led by Rehman Dakait and the other by Arshad Pappu.

The spokesman said that the IG had also directed the police to register an FIR on the complaint of the family members of the person ‘mistakenly’ killed by Lyari Task Force.