A 22-years-old young man was shot dead by police in an alleged encounter on Thursday near Dispensary Chowk in Shadbagh Police precincts.
The deceased was identified as Ali Raza, a resident of Zeenat Block, Allama Iqbal Town. According to police Raza was a proclaimed offender and a hardened criminal and was involved in several incidents of robbery, street crime and shooting at police officers.
According to Shadabagh Police, on the day of incident, Raza and his friends snatched a motorcycle from a citizen in Misri Shah and were escaping when officials of Muhafiz Squad deputed in Wassanpura Area signalled Raza and his accomplice to stop for routine checking but Raza and his accomplice opened fire at them.
Shadbagh Police said officials of Muhafiz Squad survived luckily from the firing and radioed information to 15 wireless controls. The officials also started searching for the shooters, who managed to escape. Meanwhile SI Faiz Ahmed Gulshan along with other police official also started searching for the shooters.
Raza and his accomplice were finally intercepted at Dispensary Chowk and they exchanged fire with the police.
Raza was injured and was rushed to the Mayo Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Police later removed the body to Mayo Hospital morgue for autopsy and started investigating the matter and contacted his relatives.
Officials claimed that about dozen cases had already been registered against Raza in Lower Mall, Shafiqabad and Islampura Police Stations. They claimed that the deceased had also injured TASI Kashif of Shafiq Abad Area about a year ago and was declared a proclaimed offender in the same case.
The heirs of Raza including his mother Safia Bibi, sister Sumaira and brother Ammar while talking to reporters told a different story. They claimed that a police party headed by SHO Shadbagh namely Farooq Asghar Awan arrested Raza from his house at about 7pm on Wednesday. They claimed that police officials had killed their brother and had staged an encounter. They said SHO Farooq Asghar Awan and SHO Shahdara Maqsood Gujjar had a clash with Raza.
They, while justifying Raza’s action of injuring a cop, said he had done so in self-defence. They blamed police for registering the cases against him to take revenge.
