KARACHI: District session court (South) on Monday issued a seven-day police remand to the eight police personnel who allegedly shot dead a young man in Karachi’s Defence area.
Nineteen-year-old Intezar Ahmed was killed, late Saturday night when bullets were showered on his car. The police had earlier maintained that the youth was killed in firing by unidentified assailants on motorcycles. However, it was later disclosed that the Anti-Car Lifting Cell officials (ACLC) opened fire at Ahmed’s car after he failed to stop his vehicle despite their instructions.
On Sunday, DIG Saqib Ismail told reporters outside the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre that, “There was a deployment of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell there. They [ACLC personnel] opened fire on the car, which hit them. We are looking into this matter,”
Initially, six personnel of ACLC had been arrested, and later, two more personnel had surrendered themselves for involvement in the case Sunday night. Two inspectors, two head constables and two officers were among those taken into custody.
A senior police officer earlier informed that there were nine armed ACLC policemen in plainclothes involved in the incident, of whom three have gone into hiding. They were travelling on two motorcycles and a car, all private vehicles, he added.
The ACLC officials had tried to stop the teenager’s car but thinking they were robbers, Intezar sped away. However, the officials then chased his car and opened fire at it, resulting in the death of the teenager, who sustained multiple bullet wounds, including one to the head, he added.
It has still not been determined whether the boy was alone or with a male or female friend, the officer said.
According to police sources close to the investigation, the suspects in their statements today said that the ACLC had set up a picket in the Khayaban-i-Bukhari area for snap checking after receiving reports about the snatching of government-owned vehicles in the DHA area linked to suspects in a white Toyota Corolla.
ACLC personnel in plainclothes wearing bulletproof vests were checking vehicles under the leadership of inspectors Tariq and Azhar, the sources said, citing the statements.
The personnel asked Intizar to stop, but he didn’t comply, after which they followed his vehicle and fired at its tires with their privately-owned weapons, according to the officials’ statements.
Three licensed 9mm pistols were recovered from the possession of the detained ACLC officials. The weapons, along with the 16 bullet casings recovered from the site of the shooting, have been sent for forensic testing, the sources said.
Intezar’s family, on Sunday, in a press conference, appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) for justice.
Speaking to the media, Intezar’s father said: “I want justice, I want the killers of my son”.
The counsel for the victim’s family Mohammad Asif said the boy was in a conscious state until a few hours before the incident and was at a friend’s house.
“There was a clear intention to kill,” said the lawyer, explaining that bullet holes in the car show the police aimed to kill.
The counsel also complained that 3-4 hours after the incident, no police officer recorded the parents’ statements.
The victim’s parents informed that their son, an only child, was 19 years old and studying at a university in Malaysia after completing his O and A levels from City School, Darakshan. He had come to Pakistan for his winter break.
