LAHORE – The Crime Investigations Agency (CIA) staged a fake encounter and gunned down two alleged criminals who were in the police custody for the last several days, a police officer disclosed to TheNation on Wednesday.
The CIA police staged the fake encounter in the Shadbagh area late Tuesday night and killed the alleged bandits, identified as Amir and Imran. The source further revealed that neither the police made any call to the Emergency Service (Rescue 15) about the late night encounter nor additional police force was called in to help encircle the bandits. Normally, the police are alerted across the provincial metropolis whenever an armed encounters triggers between cops and criminals.
According to sources, the CIA (City Division) police arrested the two bandits several days ago and kept them at a private torture cell. The police interrogated the bandits, recovered looted valuables from their possession, and later planned the encounter to close their chapter once and for all after getting go ahead from the top cops.
A police officer serving in the Investigation Wing of Shadbagh police told this scribe on condition of anonymity that the CIA police killed the bandits in a fake encounter.
“They (CIA policemen) contacted the Shadbagh Police Station after killing the bandits in a fake encounter and asked the on-duty cops to shift the dead bodies to the morgue,” the police officer said. He further revealed that both the bandits were handcuffed and lying dead with multiple bullet injuries as they reached the spot to remove the bodies.
It may be mentioned here that the police have launched an aggressive campaign against hardened criminals. So far this year, no less than 200 alleged criminals have been killed in fake and staged encounters by rogue policemen in different parts of the province.
Unfortunately, the top judiciary is keeping mum over the entire situation at a time when the police are deciding the fate of criminals on their own. Time and again, the victim families have appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the police encounters taking place in the province.
A 45-year-old man was recovered dead from the Lower Mall police precincts on Wednesday. Police said that the man, yet to be identified, was lying dead near in the limits of Data Darbar.
Also, valuables worth lakhs of rupees were reduced to ashes after fire erupted in a candle manufacturing factory located in the Delhi Gate area.