KARACHI, Sept 17: Police gunned down a man for merely ignoring their signal to stop on Tariq Road in the small hours on Sunday. Three constables were booked for killing the innocent citizen, later identified as Zafar Hameed. The constables – Alam Khan Niazi, Allah Ditta, and Javed Iqbal – were locked up in the Ferozabad police station after initial inquiry conducted by the Jamshed town police officer.

The police officials in question claimed that the motorcycle rider opened fire at the police and they just returned the fire, which resulted in the death of Zafar Hameed. However, the police later failed to find a firearm in the possession of the victim, which disproved their claim of an exchange of fire.

The TPO of Jamshed Town, Sultan Khwaja, who conducted the initial inquiry into the incident, said: “The deceased was absolutely innocent and not involved in any criminal case.”

He said: “We do not want to cover up the incident as it may further aggravate the situation.”

Contrary to the claim of the Jamshed TPO, sources said that a police picket was always led by an officer of at least the rank of assistant sub-inspector. The three lowest ranking police officials were not authorized to do snap checking on their own and the police were allegedly trying to hide some facts, they added.

Police narrated the whole episode as saying that a man on a motorbike was signaled to stop near the Cheelwali Kothi on Tariq Road. Instead, he sped away. The police chased the motorcyclist, who tried to dodge the police, also on motorbikes. The police called reinforcement. In the meantime, the motorcyclist opened fire, which was returned. A bullet hit the suspect, who fell to the ground. The man was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. “During the initial inquiry, I came to the conclusion that Alam Khan Niazi first fired four or five shots in the air and thereafter he fired a shot at Zafar. The bullet pierced his head and he might have died on the spot”, Mr Khwaja said.

The victim, Zafar, resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s Block-4/A, was temporarily living with his mother in Gulberg. He worked for a travel agency. Sources close to his family said Zafar was preparing to get married in a couple of months, after Eid-ul-Fitr. His brother-in-law Dr Sohail was approached by the police who sought time to get the FIR registered.

“We told him that we cannot wait. However, we have shown him the draft contents of the FIR and after his approval, we registered the case against three officials,” the Jamshed TPO said.

Earlier on March 20, three police officials were put into a lockup following the killing of a man and his sister near Sakhi Hasan.