Naimat Khan
KARACHI: Murder of Maqsood Ahmed, a Karachi youth killed in shootout on main Shahrah-e-Faisal thoroughfare earlier this year in January, turned out to be yet another fake encounter by the Karachi Police.
Maqsood was killed by police in January 2018 few days after the case of Naqeeb Mehsud came to fore. Police first claimed Maqsood was an accused but latter backtracked and said he came in line of fire with dacoits.
The charge sheet, presented in court on Tuesday, stated that ASI Tariq shot two other people after dragging them out from a rickshaw, along with the deceased. He also killed Maqsood whereas none of them had weapons.
Sheikh Muhammad, the father of the deceased expressed reservations over the charge sheet, and demanded the authorities to present CCTV video of the incident to the public.
“My son has been martyred by police. I have not received any justice. He did possess no weapon, I demand authorities to release the CCTV video so that people can know about the reality,” he said.
The CCTV shows how on Main Shahrah e Faisal right outside PAF Faisal Base Police shot two robbers who had no weapons and then shot Maqsood and his friend who were innocent bystanders and claimed the Robbers killed Maqsood and pretended to be heroes by nabbing Robbers.
Counsel of Maqsood father, Jibran Nasir, who has seen video, told media that CCTV shows how on Main Shahrah e Faisal right outside PAF Faisal Base Police shot two robbers who had no weapons and then shot Maqsood and his friend who were innocent bystanders and claimed the Robbers killed Maqsood and pretended to be heroes by nabbing Robbers.
“We demand Police and IO of the case DSP Muhammad Zubair to make the CCTV public and an inquiry should be initiated against all officers of PS Shahrah e Faisal who tried to cover the matter and registered fake FIR to save the Police Party led by ASI Tariq who killed Maqsood,” Nasir said.
Nasir said that after Naqeeb Mehsud’s case Maqsood’s has again exposed fake encounter conducted by Police where innocents are killed and some officers become super cops. Till date no committee setup to investigate all encounters as they take place. “No reforms for accountability by Sindh Police,” he said.
“No JIT with ISI or MI was needed to find Rao Anwar guilty of killing Naqeeb Mehsud. No such JIT was needed to find AIS Tariq guilty of killing Maqsood. Both cases investigated by Police officers. Sindh Police has officers which can set its house in order but no policy in place,” he said.
Earlier, Sindh Home Minister Suhail Anwar Siyal said incidents of innocent people being killed in police encounters were taking place one after another. But, he added, police would not be doing this on purpose.
The minister called Maqsood, ‘innocent’. He also said the impression that government was trying to protect someone was wrong.
