Acting Karachi Additional Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon has directed the senior superintendents of police, who are the police chiefs of their respective districts, to ban special police parties and personnel in plainclothes within their districts and also remove the station house officers (SHOs) with bad record.
The decision to ban police personnel in plainclothers has been taken in the aftermath of the recent killing of a young student in a fake encounter in the Orangi Town area of the city. The Karachi police chief has asked all the district SSPs to submit certificates that no special party or plainclothes personnel was operating in their districts. According to the order, the SSPs should also remove all the SHOs of bad character from police stations.
On the night of December 6, a 16-year-old boy, Arsalan, was shot dead and his friend wounded by a police team in Orangi Town in an alleged police encounter. However, later, then Orangi Town SHO was suspended and two men, including a police constable, were arrested on murder and terrorism charges.
West Range DIG Nasir Aftab said initial findings submitted to him showed negligence on the part of the SHO, who was then suspended and would face departmental proceedings.
DIG Aftab said Constable Tauheed, who had shot 16-year-old Arsalan, was also found guilty and he committed the offence along with his friend Umair, following which the police were directed to register an FIR against them. A case was registered against the cop and his friend at the Orangi Town police station on the complaint of Badshah Khan, uncle of the deceased boy, under the sections of murder, attempted murder, dacoity and terrorism.
According to the FIR, Khan owns a private business and is a resident of Muhammad Khan Colony. He said he was in Naval Colony when he received a call from a relative, who informed him that his nephew Arsalan and his friend Yasir had been injured during a robbery.
Khan was told that the boys were under treatment at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital but when he reached the hospital, he was told that Arsalan had succumbed to his injuries.
He was informed by relatives that as per his daily routine, Arsalan, an intermediate student, and Yasir were returning home on a motorcycle after receiving tuition from a teaching institute near the Board Office.
When the boys were near Orangi Town’s Qatar Masjid, armed men opened fire on them, following which Arsalan was killed and Yasir wounded, said the uncle. DIG Aftab said the police investigation showed that the constable was not in uniform when the boys were shot.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Malik Shahzad Awan, who is also the president of the Pakistan Goods Transport Alliance, condemned the murder of Arsalan, who was the son of Dumper Association Chairman Liaquat Ali Mehsud.
The lawmaker said they would make sure that the bereaved family received justice. He said the killing of a young man in such a manner was completely unacceptable.
He added that the police were under an obligation to protect the lives and belongings of the people so they should not be killing innocent youngsters in such a manner. He appealed to the Sindh chief minister and the province’s inspector general of police to take notice of the murder and order an investigation to be conducted in an independent manner.
