GUJRAT, Feb 26: A youth was shot dead by an ASI and constable of Lalamusa city police station near Mohammadi Chowk, on the Qasba Road, in Lalamusa on Thursday.

Reports said Javed alias Bilu Butt and Dilshad, 16, residents of Qasba mohallah, were going towards their home from Khawaspur by a car (MNE-6555). Near Khawaspur bazaar, ASI Arshad Mahmood and a constable in a car signalled Bilu to stop, but he accelerated speed.

The policemen opened fire on Bilu's car Near Model School on the Qasba Road due to which Dilshad, who was sitting on the back seat, suffered wounds in his head, while Bilu escaped unhurt. He abandoned his car about half a kilometre away near Mohammadi chowk and escaped.

The policemen, who were said to be in plain clothes, found Dilshad lying in a pool of blood. They bundled him in a motorcycle-rickshaw and took him to the Lalamusa rural health centre where no doctor was available.

Dilshad succumbed to his wounds after an hour without getting any medical treatment, hospital sources said. Eye-witnesses claimed that the ASI and his two subordinates were in plain clothes and riding a private white vehicle. The police sent the body to mortuary for autopsy.

Later, a number of locals, including the deceased's father Muhammad Husain Butt and other members of family, gathered outside the Lalamusa city police station and chanted slogans against the highhandedness of the officials.

Sources said DSP (headquarters) Mahmoodul Hassan Qureshi reached there and refused to register a case against the policemen. He informed the protesters that Bilu and the slain boy were drug peddlers and police was tipped off that they were taking a huge quantity of hashish to Qasba, they added.

They quoted the DSP as saying to the heirs of the slain that police had set up a picket near Mohammadi chowk where Bilu and Dilshad opened fire on police, who returned it. At this the protesters again chanted slogans against the police.

A police source disclosed that nothing was recovered from the abandoned car of Bilu. He said the DSP had asked Muhammad Husain to submit a written application about the incident so that action could be taken against the suspects after consideration of the plea.

His father, said the sources, lodged a written complaint with police, but no case was registered till the filing of this report.The residents of Qasba have demanded the higher authorities to order a judicial probe into the matter and direct the police to register a case.

TRADERS' STRIKE: Traders of Jorra village on Thursday observed strike when a hotel owner and his servant were beaten up by two constables of Jorra police picket for demanding price of tea cups.