LAHORE, April 15: Police allegedly helped the leader of a gang of robbers escape, who had murdered a woman in Shahdara on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Shahdara Police Station, pelted it with stones and kept the main road in front of it blocked for over five hours to protest against the incident.

Four gunmen had stormed into the house of Mohammad Saleem at Fazal Park in Shahdara and held up the inmates. On facing resistance, the intruders opened fire, injuring Mr Saleem, his wife Parven and their son Sohail.

The miscreants collected cash and gold jewellery worth Rs80,000 and escaped. The injured people were taken to the Mayo Hospital, where the 40-year-old Ms Parven died while her husband and son were stated to be in critical condition.

The fleeing robbers were chased by residents of the area, who got hold of one of them, Muhiuddin, and handed him over to the police. He helped the police round up two more of the escaped robbers, Abdul Ghaffar and the ringleader, Riaz Ahmad.

Both the arrested men were taken to the police station where they were treated as guests rather than criminals, according to the protesters, who told reporters that the ringleader, who happened to be a relative of a policeman posted at the police station, was allowed to leave without interrogation.

However, City Division SP Abdul Karim Rao told Dawn that the ringleader was being interrogated when he managed to escape. “How can the police help a criminal escape when a close relative of the murdered woman was a police constable and was among those who chased and nabbed the robber,” he asked. He identified the policeman as Shakeel.

However, the residents who had chased and caught one of the robbers convened a meeting under the chairmanship of local MPA Samiullah on coming to know that the ringleader had escaped.

The MPA requested the people to come out of their houses and protest against the police.

Hundreds of people marched towards the police station. A heavy police contingent tried to stop them but was not able to do so. The crowd blocked the main Ravi Road in front of the police station, burnt tyres and chanted slogans against the police.

Senior police officers reached the spot and tried to calm down the people, who however continued with their protest. All police efforts to keep the traffic moving failed.

The protesters turned all the more angry when some of the policemen treated them harshly. They pelted the police as well as the police station building with stones. One of the senior police officers fell down. However, the police remained cool and did not retaliate.

The protesters refused to leave the spot until action was taken against the policemen responsible for the escape of the robber.

On the directions of the high command, at least three policemen were locked up. The protesters dispersed on the promise that strict action would be taken against the detained policemen.

A police spokesman said late in the night that a case had been registered against Shahdara SHO Munawar Hussain and constables Shakeel and Ehsan. He did not know whether they had been arrested. However, he claimed a team had been sent for the arrest of the ringleader.