ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: A brother of an old man who was killed and his body burnt in a market in Dera Ghazi Khan district six months ago by police and a mob for murdering a youth has narrated the incident.

Ghulam Rasool, younger brother of Hafiz Abdullah, told Dawn on Wednesday that he was one of the witnesses to the police brutality, especially of Iqbal Chandia, Deputy Superintendent of Police of Choti Zaireen Police Station in Mutafaqir Chahan village who allegedly shot the victim in his head.

The local SHO also fired several shots in his face before the body was put at the mercy of the mob, he said.

The incident came to light on Monday when a video footage was shown by private TV channels.

The man had shot dead a shop owner, Naseem Abbas, over a petty dispute and surrendered, saying the crime had been committed unintentionally.

“I went to the police station when I heard that my brother had killed a young man and he had been arrested by police. Sometime later some relatives of the dead man thronged the police station and I and my two relatives hid in the bathroom,” Mr Rasool said.

“Meanwhile, I saw the DSP shooting my brother, followed by the SHO,” he said.

Later, the police handed over the body to the mob and two young men tied it with a rope and dragged it with their motorcycles. They took the body to the main market of Choti Zaireen where people threw clothes, bushes and tyres on it and set it on fire in the presence of the DSP and the SHO, he said.

Ghulam Rasool said his family, including three sons and seven daughters of Abdullah, had been receiving threats from police. “We have been threatened that we could be killed also if we lodge a complaint against the police.”

He put the blame of the incident on the DSP who has been serving in the same area for 15 years because of alleged backing of Pakistan Muslim League-N's leader Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.

Another man of Dera Ghazi Khan, Simla Khan, alleged that the DSP had killed his 17-year-old son Mohammad Ajmal on March 27, 2008, after declaring that he was a dacoit. A judicial inquiry by the district and sessions judge found that it was a fake encounter.

The inquiry report, issued on June 10, 2008, said the DSP and other policemen who took part in the fake encounter were liable to be prosecuted.