KARACHI: Police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested four policemen for killing a young woman when they fired into the air to disperse irate workers of two welfare organisations engaged in ration distribution in a PIB Colony area on Tuesday.

Area SHO Shakir Husain told Dawn that two local organisations, Shah Welfare and Nishtar Basti Welfare, had arranged distribution of ration in Nishtar Basti on Tuesday without informing the district administration or police.

A scuffle broke out between the volunteers of the two organisations reportedly over distribution of ration. After receiving information about the violent situation, four policemen rushed to the spot to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.

The police claimed that some violent persons pushed the four policemen upon which they fired into the air to disperse the crowd. However, a bullet hit Saba Noman, who was watching the whole episode from the balcony of her apartment.

The SHO said she sustained a single bullet wound in the head and was taken to a private hospital where she died during treatment. The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to fulfil medico-legal formalities.

A Rangers man is among six persons booked for Tuesday’s killing of a JI worker in Surjani

Victim’s family doesn’t want FIR

A spokesman for the DIG-East said in a statement that a scuffle broke out between two local organisations over distribution of ration in Nishtar Basti and four patrolling policemen — identified as Head Constable Azeemuddin, Constables Ashfaq, Zeeshan Shah and Mohammed Abrar — reached there and tried to pacify both the sides but the people also attacked them.

In view of the situation, the policemen started aerial firing from their small arms. As a result, an innocent woman, Ms Saba, 25, who was standing in the balcony of her nearby flat got injured and died later. After receiving information about the incident, the area SHO and DSP reached the spot, took the four policemen into custody and recovered two spent bullet casings fired from 9mm and 30-bore pistols from the crime scene.

A medical examination of the held policemen was carried out at the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi while the seized weapons were sent to a forensic lab for investigation.

The police asked the victim’s husband, Noman Khan, to come and register a case but he told the police that he did not want to lodge an FIR.

Meanwhile, SSP-East Tanveer Alam told the media that the police would register the case against the detained policemen on behalf of the state as no one was above the law.

Rangers man among six booked

The Surjani Town police on Wednesday registered a murder case against six persons, including a Rangers man, with regard to the killing of a worker of the Jamaat-i-Islami and wounding three others on Tuesday.

A senior officer said that the case (FIR 369/2020) was registered against Abdullah Shah, Hakeem alias Major, Mudassir and three unknown persons, who the complainant can identify upon seeing, under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 147 (rioting) and 34 (common intention) on a complaint of deceased’s brother Mohammed Hanif.

He said that the suspects were said to be supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), while Mudassir was a Rangers’ sepoy.

He added that Javed Ahmed, the deceased, originally hailed from Thatta and was a driver by profession.

On Tuesday, an armed attacked on a Taiser Town office of the JI had left the man dead and three others injured.

They said the armed men riding motorbikes pulled up outside the party office in Sector 36-C where they were busy arranging relief goods for distribution among the area people in the backdrop of the ongoing lockdown.

They said that Tuesday’s incident could be a reaction of a clash that took place between the two sides a day before.

On Monday evening, they said, the JI workers and activists of another group were busy distributing ration among the area people separately when they exchanged words.

“The argument turned into a scuffle between the workers of two sides. They pelted stones and used sticks and bricks to attack each other. The situation turned normal after the area people intervened and police also rushed to the site and dispersed the activists,” said an official at the Surjani Town police station.

Late on Tuesday night, he said, some armed men riding motorbikes pulled up outside the JI office. Two of them got off a two-wheeler and fired shots on the people standing outside the office and sped away with their aides.

“As a result 35-year-old Javed Ahmed died on the spot while three other persons — Saleem, Azeem and Adnan — sustained bullet wounds,” said the official.

Additional Police Surgeon at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Saleem Shaikh said that the victim suffered two bullet wounds in the chest. He added that the condition of the injured was out of danger.

Meanwhile, in a statement JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rahman condemned the attack on party workers calling it failure of the law enforcement agencies and security administration.

“It’s so unfortunate that the volunteers who are working to help people in these times of crisis are being targeted for political reasons and hatred. We demand … that the killers, whoever [is] behind them, should be arrested and penalised,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2020