KARACHI, Oct 5: It was another typical encounter in which police, on Wednesday night, shot two suspected bandits in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and one of them succumbed to his wounds later at a hospital, reportedly due to the delay caused by the police in providing him medical treatment.
However, police wasted no time in seeking another feather in their cap for their ‘achievement’ in the ongoing fight against street crime.
The so-called encounter that took place at a petrol station was witnessed by a number of people and raised several questions and triggered controversies that exposed the style of police action in such a situation and the hurdles they would create in saving the life of people, mainly suspects, who would need immediate medical assistance after falling victim to their bullets.
According to the police, SHO of Sharea Faisal police station, along with his team, was carrying out snap checking in Gulistan-i-Jauhar close to the Hilltop Marriage Lawns when they signalled riders of a motorcycle to stop.
The three men on the motorcycle opened fire at the police and fled, police said.
This prompted a hot pursuit by police who chased the suspects into Block 16 of Gulistan-i-Jauhar and engaged the suspects in the encounter. During the exchange of fire, the suspects suffered bullet wounds and two of them fell on the ground. The third one managed to escape, police said, adding that the encounter had taken place near a petrol pump.
When this reporter visited the scene of incident, one of the suspects was lying on the ground, apparently with bullet injury in his head. He was breathing and having spasm. However, despite the fact that a senior police official had been told about his being still alive, police didn’t bother to move swiftly to shift him to a hospital. Their attitude appeared deplorable more because three Edhi ambulances with drivers appeared ready to rush him to a hospital but they could not move for want of clearance by the police.
Instead, the police tossed the other suspect into their mobile van. He was presumed dead, but was actually alive.
Both the injured were evidently kept unattended for at least 45 minutes by the police, who seemed to have been wasting time deliberately.
A bearded gentleman, believed to be an Edhi volunteer, tried to convince the policemen present there to allow shifting of the injured suspect to a hospital as he needed immediate medical assistance. However, the policemen argued: “Do you know how many people he (suspect) may have killed?”
It was only after the arrival of the TPO Shah Faisal Colony that the police allowed the suspects to be shifted to hospital. But it was too late, as the injured had already succumbed by then.
Only a bucket of water was enough to wash away the spilled blood of the suspect who remained lying unattended on road, despite presence of a large number of people, for well over 45 minutes.
However, a 22-year-old eyewitness, requesting not to be named for obvious reasons, told Dawn that policemen had shot the suspects after overpowering them.
The firing by police was not in self-defence, but the suspects were shot at a point blank range by the cops, he added.
Immediately after the shooting, they (police) forced the petrol pump administration to switch off the lights to cover up the incident, he pointed out.
This was the obvious reason why none of the policemen or passers-by suffered a bullet wound in the crowded place where the incident took place.
At the time of the incident, motorists were waiting for their turn in a queue for CNG filling. However, after witnessing the incident, most of them preferred to drive away without getting fuel.
Till late in the night, both the suspects had remained unidentified but police seemed determined to trace out their criminal record.
A few months back, police had shot dead four suspects in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in an encounter and instead of shifting them to a hospital, their bodies had been taken to the Aziz Bhatti police station where they had been kept for more than three hours.
The police had maintained that the suspects had already died and the bodies had been taken to the police station for the purpose of identification.
