LAHORE: Dolphin Force personnel allegedly shot at and injured a young man critically, declaring him “a suspected criminal” in Iqbal Town area here on Saturday.

What appears to be a planned move, the four Dolphin personnel intercepted Hassan Bhatti of Sabzazar when he was returning home by his car after withdrawing Rs50,000 cash from a bank branch in Iqbal Town.

A police source said the personnel surrounded Hassan’s car following an emergency call on police’s 15 helpline.

He said on being inquiring about his purpose of visiting Iqbal Town, Hassan showed the policemen his ATM card and the amount he had withdrawn from the bank, besides answering their other queries.

He said one of the personnel suddenly fired a bullet shot at “unarmed man” and injured him critically despite the fact that he was cooperating with them.

The Dolphins later reported the incident as ‘police encounter’, claiming the suspect first fired at them and thy retaliated it in their defence.

However, he said, the later inquiries unveiled the actual incident that appeared to be an “engineered encounter” and a case of “abuse of powers”.

In the light of inquiry reports, the police authorities suspended all the four personnel of the Dolphin Force from service. They also got a criminal case lodged against the suspects with the local police station on the charges of attempted murder.

The Iqbal Town sector in charge of the Dolphin Squad has also been removed from the post, and was directed to report to the Police Lines.

The source said the inquiry was launched when statements of the suspects and the circumstantial evidences contradicted.

He said what created more suspicion was that the the caller, Zulqarnain, who had alerted the police on 15 helpline about the presence of Hassan also reached the scene with some FIRs lodged against him. Most of the FIRs provided to the police were related to monetary disputes instead of “street crime”.

According to the source, Zulqernain fled the scene when he found the young man injured seriously.

Meanwhile, the local police also reached the spot and took the injured man to hospital where his condition was stated to be serious.

The source said the dolphin personnel tried to mislead the police high-ups by presenting an “illegal” pistol and a bullet shell, claiming these were recovered from Hassan.

However, he said, during inquiry, it transpired that the injured man had nothing to do with the pistol, adding that the FIR lodged on the complaint of Hassan’s father Manzoor Ahmad also alleged the Dolphin personnel hatched a plan with the connivance of his son’s rivals for his (Hassan’s) murder.

He said the suspects didn’t take his critically injured son to the hospital despite his repeated requests for his timely treatment to save his life as they wanted him to die on the spot as per their “plan”.

Manzoor demanded in the FIR that presence of the caller (Zulqarnain) and then his mysterious disappearance from the scene must also be probed into.

Iqbal Town SP retired Capt Mohammad Ajmal said the suspects had been booked under the charges of attempted murder following the recommendations of the inquiry officer.

He said action was taken against them after the charges of abuse of powers had been proved. However, he said, it would be premature to say anything about the alleged link of the suspects with Zulqernain.

He added the case had been handed over to the investigation police for further probe.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2020