KASUR, Sept 30: The recent killing of a notorious criminal in an encounter with the police in Chunian has brought the long-awaited relief to the people who, however, insist that he should have been brought to book much earlier.
On many occasions in the past did he manage to avert his arrest or police action and generally found the going smooth, several villagers said unanimously.
Zafar Iqbal Papu, who had earned the label of a terror symbol in Chunian, was killed in an encounter last week immediately after he, together with his gang, entered the house of Talib Husain at Sodiwal village and shot dead his two sons and wife besides injuring his mother. Talib had reportedly refused to give him Rs1 million extortion money and challenged his criminal activities.
Speaking to Dawn, Talib Husain explained his tragedy in these words: “My wife and sons are martyrs and their blood has not gone waste for they have laid down their lives towards the noble cause of ridding the entire population of Chunian of a villain.”
Papu, who was wanted by the Chunian police in 40 cases of heinous crime including murder and kidnap for ransom, used to demand extortion money from the people.
“We used to give him money out of fear and never dared to face or oppose him; there was no question of informing the police,” Sodiwal resident Muhammad Din said. He said some families had left their home and hearth for fear of the gang as a result of which hundreds of acres of land in Papu’s Gunb and neighbouring villages had been lying uncultivated.
Among them were the families of Nasir Mayo and Liaquat Mayo who had come from Lahore after selling their land in Defence. Such families were the special targets of the gang.
It is learnt that some years ago when Raja Zafar was Chunian DSP, Papu had escaped from the police custody when he was being brought to a Chunian court after he reportedly threw chilies in the eyes of the escorting policemen.
In early 2005, Papu and his accomplices took Rana Hanif, a resident of Sodiwal, to his outhouse which was hardly a few kilometres away from the village and demanded ransom. As his family failed to fulfill the demand, Papu shot at and injured Rana Hanif and threw him in the open to cast a spell of horror. His tout Subhan Khan, in the meantime, spread the news of Hanif’s death.
He was the one who used to persuade the villagers to give Papu the demanded money to avert any untoward incident, according to the villagers.
Later, the gang kidnapped Sardar Ali of the same village for a ransom of Rs300,000. Sardar’s family somehow paid the amount through Subhan to rescue the victim.
Nasir Mayo was yet another victim of the gang which received Rs600,000 from his family and warned it against complaining to the police. Six months later, Papu again demanded Rs100,000 in cash and a tractor from Nasir Mayo who brought the matter into the notice of the police.
Nasir had fixed a meeting place after negotiations where Kasur DPO Syed Ahmad Mobeen dispatched a team. An encounter took place in the Allahabad police station precinct as a result of which two of the gangsters were killed and three others arrested. The arrested culprits were identified as Manzoor, Zameer and Aas Muhammad. Yet another accomplice managed to escape.
It is learnt that Talib Husain had been persuading the villagers to face Papu manfully rather than succumbing to his demands all the time and making him exploit the innocent people.
Getting wind of the situation, Papu demanded Rs1 million from Talib and threatened him with dire consequences in case of his refusal.
Talib, subsequently, got a case 729/05 registered with the Chunian police. In the counterattack, Papu along with his accomplices took Talib to a public place near Subhan Khan’s residence and thrashed him demanding that he should withdraw the case. This time too it was none other than Subhan who got the dispute resolved.
However, Talib claimed that Papu kept threatening him on his cell-phone and he again informed the police. The DPO deployed plainclothes men at the village making Papu leave the village. He was not seen in the area where he used to rule since the beginning of this year and only two cases were registered during this period.
Nurturing grudge against the complainant, Papu came to Sodiwal village on the night of Sept 23 to exact revenge from Talib who was asleep in his doorless room on the upper storey. The intruders opened fire and Talib also took out his weapon and retaliated. In an exchange of fire, Talib’s wife Shamim, 32, and two sons Gulraiz, hardly two and-a-half years, and Rashid, 8, died on the spot.
Papu’s accomplices who stayed at some distance also opened fire and a bullet hit Talib’s mother in her back. She was taken to hospital in a critical condition. A bullet hit Papu on his leg.
Meanwhile, Talib’s brother Ishaq contacted him on his cell-phone and Talib informed him about the incident. Ishaq informed the DPO who sent a Chunian police party, headed by DSP Abdul Rauf Chishti and SHO Riaz Abbas, to the spot.
In an hour-long shootout that followed, Zafar Iqbal Papu who had hidden himself in fields nearby was killed but his accomplices managed to escape. According to Chunian DSP Abdul Rauf Chishti, two raiding teams had been formed by the DPO for the arrest of the accomplices and so far the police had arrested one of them, Nasir.
He said the police were alive to the public complaints and had deputed plainclothesmen many times to catch the ring leader who somehow got wind of the police presence and managed to flee.
DPO Syed Ahmad Mobeen told Dawn that ever since he had taken charge of the post he had resolved to smash the Papu gang. And he had developed contacts with the people like Talib Husain whose brother contacted him at his cell phone and helped the police kill the notorious gangster.