KARACHI: A district and sessions court directed the SSP-Malir to register an FIR against the SHO of the Quaidabad police station and other policemen for allegedly murdering a young man in an alleged staged encounter.

On July 8, the police claimed to have killed an alleged criminal, Atif Khan, in an ‘encounter’ in Quaidabad. Later, a video went viral on social media that showed Atif in the custody of some policemen, who later on shot him.

Applicant Naeem Khan, through his counsel, filed an application before Additional District and Sessions Judge (Malir) Abdul Razzaq under Sections 22-A of the criminal procedure code (CrPC), seeking directives for registration of an FIR and recording of statement against the proposed suspects, including the Quaidabad SHO and police constables Jahangir Marwat, Iqbal Hussain and Babar Ali Rind.

After hearing both the applicant and the prosecution, the court ordered SSP of Malir to exercise his authority to record the applicant’s statement and then register an FIR verbatim as per the applicant’s statement under the relevant penal sections.

Young Atif was shot dead in ‘fake’ encounter on July 8; court terms murder footage ‘shocking and upsetting’

e court also expressed the hope that the magistrate concerned would diligently watch the progress of the investigation as well as the scrutiny of the charge sheet.

“I will refrain from making any comments that could influence the investigation, except to say that video clips of the alleged murder of the deceased are indeed shocking and upsetting. Nevertheless, it is the task of fair and impartial investigation to explore truth after investigating the case from all possible perspectives,” the judge observed.

“Though the climax of the case ends on the death or murder of the deceased/ victim, however, the commencement of the occurrence and the place of occurrence are apparently different as allegedly the police officials are taking away the deceased on their motorcycle from different locality. Therefore, no hitch to lodge the FIR of the version of the complainant party,” the judge added.

During the hearing, the applicant’s counsel submitted video clips of the incident, arguing that the footage shows the deceased, Atif, being taken away by policemen and then shot to death.

He contended that it was a case of ‘extrajudicial killing’ by police officials, who were supposed to protect lives.

He further stated that to cover up their brutal acts, they allegedly managed to lodge false FIRs with the collusion of the area SHO.

“From the video clips, it not only transpires that this is a case of extrajudicial killing by the police with ulterior motives, but the manner in which a segment of people gathered at the scene, watching the brutal acts of the police, has created fear and insecurity,” the counsel argued, adding that on these grounds, the incident also attracted Sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act along with murder charges.

On the other hand, the state prosecutor informed the court that the investigation was in progress.

He stated that if the investigating officer (IO), upon completion of the probe, concludes that the policemen were involved in the alleged offence, the murder charges would be included in the charge sheet.

In response to the court’s inquiry about whether he had seen the video clips, the state prosecutor endorsed the applicant’s narrative of the incident.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2024