KARACHI, April 20: The family of a young man, Shoaib, who was killed in the early hours of April 13 claims that he was shot dead by a policeman outside his house in Gulshan-i-Zia, Orangi Extension.

They recall that at least five armed men came to Mukhtar Husain’s house in Gulshan-i-Zia in sector 11 1/2 of Orangi Town.

“It was between 2:30am and 3am. We were storing water brought by a tanker. We noticed the movement of some people outside our house.

“When we raised alarm, the armed men told us not to do so. However, my husband did not stop and continued to cry for help,” Mukhtar’s wife told Dawn.

Mukhtar’s son Shoaib, awakened by the noise, came out of the house from a side door.

Shoaib’s younger brother Mumtaz told Dawn that Shoaib had managed to grab one of the alleged bandits. “In the run-in that ensued, Shoaib suffered two bullet wounds, but he got hold of the shoulder badge of a policeman, but he snatched his badge from Shoaib’s hand and escaped under the cover of fire,” he said.

“I was away with some friends when I heard gunshots. As I rushed to the house, I found my brother Shoaib lying in a pool of blood outside the house. Upon hearing my voice, my mother opened the door and found, to her horror, her son (Shoaib) lying on the ground,” Mumtaz said.

Mumtaz told Dawn that injured Shoaib told him that the bandits were in fact policemen.

Shoaib’s mother said she collected an empty from the spot.

Shoaib was rushed to Qatar Hospital in Orangi Town, and after initial treatment there, he was referred to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) instead of the nearby Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for reasons best known to the duty doctors.

The victim’s family, who are critical of the hospital staff, said around four in the morning Shoaib was shifted to the JPMC where doctors pronounced him dead around 8am.

One bullet had pierced through Shoaib’s abdomen and the other had hit him in the leg, sources at the JPMC said.

During Shoaib’s stay at the two hospitals, his statement was not recorded, his family claimed.

Quoting his brother, Mumtaz said at least 5-6 persons clad in dark-coloured shalwar-kameez had come to his house.

Following Shoaib’s death, tension gripped Sector 11 1/2 in Orangi and enraged area residents pelted police vehicles with stones.

Under public pressure, the former SHO Orangi Extension, Iqbal Raza Shaikh, accompanied the protesters carrying Shoaib’s body to the Governor’s House.

After staging a demonstration at the Governor’s House, the protesters dispersed peacefully. The SHO was briefly detained by the police. Later, he was transferred from Orangi Extension police station.

The first information report of Shoaib’s case had been lodged against unknown persons and no one had so far been arrested, the Orangi Extension SHO told Dawn.

Investigations were being carried out on a priority basis and soon the case would be solved, claimed SHO Haider Shah.