As the police officials tried their best to distance themselves from the controversy surrounding the killing of a seminary student allegedly by the firing of Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel, the three arrested paramilitary soldiers were shifted to an undisclosed location from the Quaidabad police station.
Reportedly, high-ups of area police and FC held a meeting at the Quaidabad police station to devise a strategy to save the three paramilitary soldiers and it was decided that the police should show the incident as an accident.
While the seminary officials claimed the FC soldiers had opened straight fire at the unarmed students, the police gave different statements apparently to save the three FC men and term the student’s killing as accidental.
With no one in the police department ready to comment on the issue, the arrested FC personnel were shifted to undisclosed location on the excuse of presenting them before the FC high-ups.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Quaidabad SHO Nasir Mishwani said he had no idea what happened in Landhi No 22 as “he was on leave for two days”.
While Quaidabad police station’s Head Mohrar ASI Nasir Khan said the SHO had gone to the spot with his party, Malir SP Zahid Hussain Shah, when approached for comments, said he did not know exactly what had happened.
To a question, he replied that he did not know whether it was accidental or an extrajudicial killing but the FC men were arrested and would be presented before the court for legal proceedings. “I do not even know where the arrested FC men are,” he added.
Madrassa-e-Darul Quran Supervisor Maulana Muhammad Tayab claimed that the FC soldiers opened straight firing at the unarmed seminary students when they resisted the arrest of their colleagues.
Accusing the police for not telling the reality to save the FC men, he alleged that the paramilitary soldiers abused students when they retaliated to baton-charge and then opened fire.
“First FC Hawaldar Khursheed came down heavily on a mason engaged in construction work over the placement of the sand crushing machine on the road,” Tayab said.
“As Rehman came out of the seminary and asked him to take an alternate route while excusing for disturbance, the FC man instead warned the labourers to take away the machine from the street within 10 minutes.”
“When the students told him it was not possible, he started beating them and also called his two colleagues. Two more soldiers arrived at the spot and resorted to baton-charging the students,” the seminary supervisor said. “The FC men tried to arrest two brothers, Fazle Rabi and Fazle Azeem, but when they resisted, the law enforcement personnel opened straight fire, killing Rehman and injuring four others.”
Qari Fazal, the brother-in-law of Rehman, told Pakistan Today that the deceased was an “Aalim-e-Din” and had just completed his Hifz-e-Quran from the seminary.
On Sunday, the seminary had held an event to award the students with their degrees and he and his family was invited in this event.
He said that his father had arrived from Batgram, Hazara District to attend the event a few days ago.
Case Investigation Officer (IO) Saleh Muhammad Marwat said when a police party reached the spot, the people were thrashing the FC personnel. The police took the soldiers to the police station.
“The FC men claimed that they resorted to aerial firing when the seminary students tried to snatch their weapons,” he added.
Marwat said the post-mortem report of the deceased reveals that the victim had received a bullet at a 60-degree angle. “There are many buildings in the congested street and it was believed that the causality took place due to the bullets rebounding off from the buildings, as when a bullet strikes any solid surface, it deflects with the same speed,” he claimed.
