KARACHI, March 14: A suspected militant, said to be involved in the Wednesday killing of the city’s leading social worker Parween Rahman, was killed in a police encounter in the Manghopir locality on Thursday, police said.

A police team signalled a Toyota Platz car in the Manghopir area to stop, police said, adding that the occupants of the vehicle opened fire on the police and tried to speed away. However, the police returned fire and the bullets hit one of the men in the car, the police said.

They said that in the meantime some aides of the suspects opened fire on the police from the Manghopir hillocks and one man in the vehicle managed to escape on foot. However, the wounded suspect died before he could be shifted to hospital.

The police said that the deceased was identified through a police informer as Qari Bilal. He was the deputy chief of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s Manghopir chapter, they added.

SSP-West Asif Ajaz Shaikh told Dawn that some evidence recovered from the possession of the suspect suggested that he could have been involved in the killing of Ms Rahman, the director of the Orangi Pilot Project.

He said that the Platz car had been snatched from Mohammad Asif on Wednesday night before the attack on Ms Rahman and the same car was also spotted at the place where Ms Rahman was targeted.

“We have recovered a 9mm pistol from the possession of Qari Bilal. A similar pistol was also used in the killing of Ms Rahman,” he said. “The recovered pistol has been sent for a forensic examination along with the spent bullet casings collected from the crime scene.”

The body of suspect Bilal, whose CNIC was also recovered, was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Speaking to reporters at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in the early hours of Thursday, DIG Javed Odho said that the police had reason to believe that the same group was also involved in the attacks on polio teams.

A case (FIR 86/2013) was registered under Sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty),

324 (attempted murder), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Manghopir police station.

Ms Rehman was killed on Wednesday in Orangi Town’s Qasba Colony. A case (FIR 104/2013) was registered against unknown persons under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the PPC on a complaint of Wali Dad, the driver of the slain Rehman, at the Pirabad police station.