RAWALPINDI, Feb 15: Hundreds of relatives and friends of two brothers killed in an overnight ‘encounter’ with the police blocked the I. J. Principal Road at Katarian for several hours on Friday.

Carrying the coffins of the two men, the protesters, including the parents, brothers and women relatives of the victims, condemned the police brutality and the Punjab government’s failure to check such incidents.

They were demanding the arrest of the policemen involved in the killing of the two brothers.

The protesters blocked the traffic by putting stones, logs and streetlight poles on the road and setting old tyres on fire. Long queues of vehicles could be seen on the road though the police had diverted the traffic.

The protest was called off after sunset on the intervention of the police high-ups and notables of the area.

Mystery still shrouds the raid at the house in New Town that left the two brothers and a police commando killed. None of the senior police officers was ready to come up with an official version why the raid was carried out in the populated middle-class compound.

When the City Police Officer Azhar Hameed Khokhar was contacted and asked about the reason for the raid, he simply said: “It was an intelligence-led raid.”

The two brothers - Malik Jamshaid, who was associated with an Islamabad-based US oil company as a chemical engineer, and Malik Sajjad - sparked unrest and anger among their families and relatives.

According to the family of the deceased, someone knocked at the door of their house late Thursday night.

As Malik Rehmat, the father of the two victims, opened the door after getting reply from outside that it was ‘Khalid’, he found some officials of law enforcement agencies in black uniform - usually worn by elite force commandos - standing outside.

“Neither they asked about anybody nor did they describe the purpose of their presence in the street. As I was exchanging words with them, my elder son Jamshaid came out and he was shot by the police,” said Malik Rehmat. He said on hearing the sound of gunshots, his younger son Sajjad, who was living with his family on the second floor of the house, came downstairs. But he was also shot, said the father.

“What was the fault of my sons who had nothing to do with any crime or terrorism? Was there any police complaint against them? No, no, no. There was nothing like that,” said the old father.

“It was police brutality and poor intelligence that claimed the lives of my two brothers,” said Malik Shamsher Khan, the brother of the victims and ex-nazim of UC-14.

When the residents of the compound in the Feroz Lane were interviewed by Dawn, they said Malik Rehmat had been living in the area for the last 50 years.

They said the elder son of Mr Rehmat was never seen even talking in a loud voice.

“It was a horrible scene when the narrow street was packed with elite force commandos. It looked as if the entire locality had been held hostage. They were shouting at the residents to stay inside their houses,” a resident of the street said.

Strangely, no weapon, no explosive and no terror-related material was recovered from the house during the raid. The raiding team arrested Mr Shamial, one of the cousins of the deceased brothers and an employee of Holy Family Hospital. However, he was freed on Friday night.

SSP Rawal Division Chaudhry Hanif said the raid was conducted in the light of intelligence that there were some “terrorists” hiding the house.

He claimed that on seeing the police the inmates of the house opened fire that led to the shoot-out leaving the two brothers and a policeman killed.

However, he said nothing was found from the house as the police did not conduct search which is a common practice after such raids.

Contrary to the police claim regarding the intelligence, the ex-UC nazim Shamsher Khan said: “I can produce hundreds of affidavits from the residents of the locality that we are law-abiding citizens and have no link with any criminal activity.”

After several hours, the protest demonstration was called off after the police held talks with the father of the deceased brothers and assured him that his version would be attached to the FIR and a judicial inquiry into the incident would be launched.

The body of the deceased police commando Hassan Naeem was sent to his native town of Chontra while two brothers will be buried on Saturday.

Malik Jamshaid is survived by four children and a widow while his brother Malik Sajjad, who got married eight months back, left the widow behind.

The New Town police registered a murder case and sealed the FIR.