VEHARI, March 6: The family of a man who was killed in an encounter last month staged a protest demonstration outside Mailsi Press Club against police on Tuesday.

They claimed that former SHO of Karampur police station Amjad Gujjar, ASIs Khizar and Mehr Iqbal and others killed Rafiq at the behest of their opponents and gave it the colour of an encounter.

They said on the night of Feb 3, Rafiq and his brother Ali Muhammad went to get back the loan from one Safdar Bhabha, who was not present at home. Safdar’s younger brother Shahid asked them to wait for him. Safdar did not return home till 10pm.

On their way back home, a police party led by SHO Amjad intercepted them. Nasir and Manzoor, the opponents of Safdar, were with the police. They had given wrong information to the police that proclaimed offenders Ajmal alias Ajju Joya and Aslam Kukki were present at the house of Safdar because they had a rivalry with Safdar as he had abducted their sister. “They hatched a conspiracy to kill Safdar in an encounter.”

They said police killed Rafiq without confirming his identity. When they realized that they had committed a mistake, they tried to defame Rafiq.

They said they had filed a writ petition against police in the court of additional district and session’s judge and during first three hearings, police did not present the initial report.

They alleged that police were harassing them to withdraw the case. They demanded a judicial inquiry into the encounter.