KARACHI, Dec 10: Protesters on Sunday blocked the National Highway by placing the body of a young man who was killed in police firing early on Sunday morning in Bin Qasim Town in the Shah Latif police limits.

The over four-hour long blocked finally ended when senior police officials assured the protestors that the police party involved in the firing had been arrested and an FIR registered against them.

According to Muhammad Niaz, an employee of a petrol station where the shooting victim, Ashraf, 19, also worked, told Dawn that Asif and his cousins Ashraf and Ismail were carrying cash from the petrol station to home at around 2am.

“This is a routine that the cash collected at the petrol station during late hours is taken home and in the morning it is deposited in the bank,” Niaz said. Similarly, they the three were taking the cash in a Cultus car when at a deserted stretch of road some policemen intercepted the three youths.

“The policemen already knew that they are employees of the petrol station as the policemen often visited the petrol station for “Chai Pani”, remarked Niaz.

Upon their reply that they were carrying the cash, the policemen told them to step down from the car.

Fearing that the policemen would deprive them of the cash, the youngsters sped away.

Instead of chasing them if they were so keen for extortion, the police opened fire on the car hitting Ashraf in the head after the bullet pierced the car, Niaz said.

He was rushed to a local hospital where Ashraf was pronounced dead, Niaz added.

“When we went to the Shah Latif police station to lodge an FIR, police had already registered an FIR against us,” Muhammad Niaz said.

“To protest against the high-handedness of the police, we took Ashraf’s body to the National Highway and staged a sit-in that started at around 10am,” he said.

Confirming the incident, the town police officer of Bin Qasim, SSP Aleem Jafri, told Dawn that the three youths should not have sped away and the policemen should not have opened fire on the car.

He said the entire police party comprising a sub-inspector and three constables involved in the incident had been arrested and an FIR had been registered against them.

He said the protestors agreed to end their sit-in when they were told that the policemen had been arrested.

The victim, Ashraf, was resident of Model Colony, where his funeral prayer was offered after Isha prayer on Sunday.

ADVISER TAKES NOTICE: Sindh Home Adviser Waseem Akhtar, taking notice of the killing of a man by police in the jurisdiction of the Shah Abdul Lateef police station, directed the authorities to arrest the police personnel involved in the killing and to punish them as per law after investigation, adds PPI.