BAHAWALNAGAR: A three-month pregnant woman, who along with her husband was injured in police shooting in front of her house on Friday night, succumbed to her injuries at the DHQ Hospital on Saturday.

On the other hand, the deceased, who had raised serious allegations against the police in her last video statements, was booked along with her husband and three other family members by the Madrasa police on charges of snatching mobile phones. The family denied the charge, saying it was a matter of land grabbing and the district police high-ups were supporting the influential land grabbers.

Police book deceased, her husband in robbery case; family alleges victimisation

According to an FIR registered on Friday on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Shaukat Ali, Shabbir Ahmad of Abbas Nagar stormed the mobile phone shop of one Imran Malik and took away a mobile phone worth Rs20,000 at gunpoint sometime back. The FIR claimed that on Friday Shabbir, his brother, Dilgeer, along with two unidentified armed men, again forced their entry into the same shop and fled after snatching a mobile phone worth Rs30,000.

Shabbir was in a car with a woman while his brother was on a motorcycle along with his accomplices.

On receiving the information, a police team under the supervision of Shaukat Ali chased Shabbir and the woman but they managed to escape while firing on policemen. Shabbir and the woman suffered bullet injuries when his brother opened fire on the police team during the encounter, the police claimed. The woman was later identified as Shabana, the wife of Shabbir.

After the shooting, Shabbir’s family along with locals held a protest against the police while terming the encounter fake. They told the media SHO Matloob Ahmad had attacked Shabbir after receiving bribe from their rivals. They claimed the influential landlords had occupied their three-kanal commercial land with the help of a former DPO. Shabbir’s mother asked how a man could take his wife along to commit a robbery.

It is worth mentioning that Shabana, in her last two video statements (clips available with Dawn), recorded while lying injured on the road and later at the DHQ hospital. She alleged the police had shot at and injured her and her husband and killed their child inside her womb when they were going to take medicines for her mother-in-law.

On Saturday, Shabbir’s father Faryad Ali told Dawn that after their protest over the shooting, SHO Matloob Ahmed visited him along with Saddar DSP Mehar Nadeem Afzaal and Investigation SP Farooq Anwar. He alleged that the SHO tried to take his thumb impressions on a blank paper and pressurised him for reconciliation. On his refusal, police booked two of his sons, Shabbir and Dilgeer, and daughter-in-law Shabana in a robbery case. He said the video of opening fire on Shabbir’s car by police officials also went viral as well as the last video statement of the deceased Shabana.

Faryad alleged they were being victimised at the behest of a landlord and influential Malik family for years over their three-kanal land. He added that four years back, the former DPO had booked all of his family members in 12 fake cases of narcotics in a single day and allowed their rivals to occupy their land. He said that in 2017, SI Matloob had booked him along with his sons, Shabbir and Dilgeer, in a fake encounter case registered with Takhat Mahal Police Station at the behest of his rivals and later declared them innocent after getting Rs400,000 bribe.

Faryad said that his daughter-in-law died last night at about 11pm; however, police did not hand them over her body as they demanded a marriage certificate, alleging that Shabbir had kidnapped Shabana. He said Shabana had contracted marriage with Shabbir of her own free will and was three months pregnant. When Faryad produced the Nikah Nama, the police asked him to bring Shabana’s parents for receiving her body.

Faryad demanded the IGP take notice of the incident and appealed to human rights activists to raise voice over the injustice.

DPO Zaffar Buzdar told Dawn that the police suspected that Shabana was not Shabbir’s wife and she was kidnapped by him. He said the body would be handed over to Shabbir’s family if they produced a marriage certificate. When informed that police refused to hand over the body despite production of the marriage certificate, he said the body would be handed over to the heirs (parents) of the deceased. Later, he claimed that on the court’s directions, Shabana’s body was being buried temporarily and it would be handed over to her blood relatives only.

SHO Matloob denied all the allegations leveled by Shabbir’s family.

DPO Buzdar said an inquiry into the viral video clips had been initiated under SP Investigation Farooq Anwar. He alleged that the family had a long criminal record, alleging that three brothers of Shabbir had already been shot dead in police encounters.

Rejecting the DPO’s statement, Faryad says he has only six sons, Shabbir (20), Dilgeer (18), Zameer (16), Shamsheer (14), Azmat (11) and Karamat (9) and none of them even has a single case of theft against them.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2022