KARACHI, April 8: A 22-year-old man was shot dead on Tuesday in a fake encounter with four policemen who were booked and arrested following a violent protest by the victim’s relatives and residents in Landhi, witnesses and police said.

Quaidabad police said they had booked and arrested ASI Danish Haider, constables Mazhar, Aman Ullah and Mian Bux for the murder of Fazal Khalid Khan on the complaint of the victim’s brother, Sher Alam Khan.The young man was shot dead by the police party in the early hours of Tuesday at a desolate place off Dawood Colony Road in the limits of the Quaidabad police.

The police party, headed by the ASI, told the area police that they were patrolling the area when they were approached by a man, later identified as Rana Tariq Aziz. The police party said that Rana told them that a dacoit, who had robbed him of his cash and cellphone at gunpoint, was on the run.

According to ASI Danish, the police party chased the suspected dacoit and shot him dead after a shootout.

However, the victim’s brother alleged that his brother was shod dead by ASI Danish and his men due to a personal enmity.

He told Dawn that his brother was arrested some time ago in a theft case by the Landhi police. He said that ASI Danish, who was also posted at the Landhi police station, had warned his brother of dire consequences after the two had an exchange of hot words at the police station.

The witnesses said a large number of residents and relatives of the victim took to the streets and staged a sit-in on Dawood Colony Road.

They said that a 65-year-old man, who was among the protestors, was crushed under the wheels of a fast-moving 18-wheeler which was also put on fire by the protestors.

Later, the witnesses said, a heavy contingent of police along with senior police officers reached the spot to bring the situation under control.

They said the protestors dispersed after the senior police officers held a series of meetings with them, assuring them of arrest and booking of the four policemen in the murder case of Fazal Khalid Khan.

Suspected dacoits killed

Two unidentified young men, described as dacoits by the police, were shot dead by a Mubina Town police party.

The area SHO, Inspector Shoaib Qureshi, told Dawn that he was on his way back to the police station in his mobile van when he spotted two suspicious men on a bike intercepting an auto-rickshaw.

He said the suspects sped away on their bike when he signaled them to stop near Safari Park. “We started chasing the fleeing dacoits who opened fire on us and we also returned fire, hitting both of them,” he added.

The bodies were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the killed suspects, both clad in shalwar-qamees, remained unidentified.

Hospital sources said the dead men were in their mid twenties.

Later, the police shifted the bodies to the Edhi morgue for want of identification.