LAHORE, Sept 13: Residents of Jinnah Park in the Gulberg industrial area are in a state of shock after witnessing a ‘live encounter’ wherein police reportedly killed an alleged criminal in front of a dozen people late on Sept 10, Dawn has learnt.

Eyewitnesses say a police van arrived at a road along the railway track near a furniture factory and a newspaper office in the locality. “It was 10:45pm and I was walking along the railway line with a few friends when I saw the rashly-driven police van stopping with a screech near the factory gate,” said an eyewitness seeking anonymity.

“Three policemen pulled a youth out of the van. He was handcuffed. Soon a policeman released him and another shot four fires at point-blank range at the man.” The security guards of the nearby construction and furniture companies also corroborate the statement.

“Three policemen passed by me and using abusive language told me to go inside the factory and shut the gate,” said a security guard. He said these policemen came to the factory gate after crossing the railway lines and went to the police van which had also arrived there by the time.

The guard, who claimed to have seen the killing just from 40 or 50 metres, said the police completed the “encounter” just in less than three minutes. Later, they sped away in the van with the body.

After hearing gunshots, a few other residents also rushed to the spot. A few of them captured the images of blood-stained place on their mobiles. On the same night, police claimed killing two car-snatchers near Jinnah Bridge. The media reported these killings, but the ‘encounter’ along the rail track went unreported.

“We request the media to highlight our concern that police should not use this lane for conducting encounters again,” said Kamran (name changed), an area resident.

The lane, which now people have started calling ‘encounter wali gali’ (the street where the encounter took place), is a wide but blind alley. “Most of the time the lane is a calm and peaceful area and if the government installs streetlights here and removes the gates, it can be a good place for jogging or walk for families at night time,” said Naveed, a resident of the area.

DIG Mushtaq Sukhera denied occurrence of any such incident, saying only one encounter happened on Sept 10 wherein two car snatchers were killed under Jinnah flyover. — AR