ISLAMABAD: A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has confirmed that Osama Nadeem Satti, 21, was murdered by officials of the capital police on Jan 2 this year.

Senior officers of the police told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the JIT probed the incident and found that the youth was murdered by officials of the Crisis Response Team (CRT) of the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the police.

The CRT team, comprising five policemen including a driver, fired at the car of Mr Satti with intention to kill the driver instead of neutralising him, they said.

They fired 19 bullets at the car and all the bullets entered the vehicle from the rear, rear left and rear right sides. The firing was opened from a distance of five to 10 feet and the rear left side and rear right sides were targeted from a distance of 12 feet and 15 feet, respectively.

Besides, a bullet entry was also found at the vehicle’s roof, adding the fire was opened from three weapons - two SMGs and a 9mm pistol.

Majority of the bullets were fired from a height of five feet, the officers said, adding 22 bullet shells were also found in different parts of Sringar Highway, including the crime scene where the car was stopped.

Four bullets were fired from a 9mm pistol, 17 from an SMG and one from another SMG, the officers said.

The investigators also traced an eyewitness, a NAB official, who had seen the policemen cordoning off the car and standing around it.

The possibility of opening fire on the car when it was stopped could not be ruled out keeping in view the shells found near the car and the eyewitness account, the officers said.

It was a six to seven minutes chase during which the police officials fired at the vehicle and murdered the youth.

The statement of five policemen matched with each other but there were some contradictions when these were compared with facts, the officers said. They told investigators that the youth jumped the red light at Project Mor when he was chased.

However, the examination of CCTVs of Safe City Project revealed that the youth had stopped at the signal when it was red and moved ahead after it turned green.

The policemen’s statement that the car was chased by another police vehicle when the CRT spotted and chased it was found to be false.

During the investigation, it was also revealed that the youth was found alive and injured when the CRT team opened the driving door of his car. The incident took place at around 1:29am and a call was made to Rescue 1122 at around 1:36am to shift the injured to hospital.

However, Rescue 1122 was informed that the injured was at H-11, instead of Srinagar Highway, the officers said, adding Rescue 1122 responded to the call and reached H-11 but found nothing and returned.

The injured was brought dead to Pims between 2:37am and 2:40amd.

Allegation of Osama’s father, Nadeem Younus, that his son had a scuffle with some policemen who threatened him was not proved during the investigation, the officers said.

After completion of the JIT proceedings, the father of the victim was called and given the report to read it, and after his satisfaction the report was submitted to the trial court.

Mr Younus, when contacted, told Dawn that the report was neither good nor bad. “Police probe the case and made the report and they made it against the police,” he said, adding it would have been more hash had it been prepared by others.

The report said the policemen had murdered the youth intentionally, he added.

At around 2am on Jan 2, Osama Satti had gone to drop his friend in H-11. When he was returning, a police team tried to stop him in response to a police communication about a robbery.

The police team fired at the vehicle indiscriminately resulting in his death on the spot. Over the incident, a case was registered with the Ramna police under 7ATA and different sections of Pakistan Penal Code. Five police officials involved in the killing were also arrested.

When contacted, Director Medial Police Assistant Inspector General of Police (Operations) Mohammad Usman Tipu said it was negligence of the policemen and the killing of the youth was a brutal act.

All the policemen involved in the incident were arrested, he added. However, he denied that bullet shells were found near the car of the youth or Rescue 1122 was given a wrong location.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2021