LAHORE - Four gangsters were killed in a police shootout staged near the Suggian Bridge late Thursday night.
Three of them were arrested by police last week in connection with multiple-murders and were shot several times during midnight shootout.
They were identified by police as Zaheer Abbas alias Basoo, Zahid Ali, Jahangir alias Bhola. Police were yet to ascertain the identity of the fourth man “who attacked the police party along with his accomplices.”
Police say they died on the spot. However, no policeman was hurt during the crossfire which lasted for an hour in the deserted fields near the Ravi River.
Police say they returned fire when some gunmen attacked a police van to free three most wanted criminals. The police had taken the suspects to a hideout for recovery of firearms and looted cash.
SSP Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera yesterday told The Nation that the four men killed in police shooting were behind the five murders which took place in Millat Park police precincts last month.
“They (suspects) were being brought back from Kot Sarwar (after an identification parade) when the police party was attacked (by some gunmen),” SSP (Investigation) Sukhera said.
On the other hand, sources in police department contradicted the claim stating that the shooting was staged. “Those criminals deserved such a punishment,” a source said, and requested his name not to be mentioned.
A policeman, seeking anonymity, said that the criminals were in the police custody for the past several days and they were gunned down “on special instructions”.
Days after the police produced them before a court and got their physical remand, someone ordered the cops to “execute justice”, according to the policeman.
The suspects were handcuffed when they were being brought back to the lock-up, he added.
Bullet-riddled bodies of the alleged robbers-cum-killers were moved to the city morgue yesterday. The bodies would be handed over to the families after the autopsy.
Officials say the police retaliated when the attackers fired on them. The three men in custody died on the spot while cops remained unhurt. One of the attackers was found shot dead after the shooting. He was killed by police firing, according to officials.
Reportedly, the gunfire began as four men on two motorcyclists opened fire on a police mobile near the bridge during the darkness. A police party and three suspects were travelling in the van.“When the firing stopped, three suspects and one attacker were found shot dead. The other gunmen fled during the crossfire,” a CIA official claimed.
Earlier this month, senior police officers said at a news conference in Lahore that four criminals behind the five murders in Millat Park were arrested. The “robbers-cum-killers” were named by police as Zaheer Abbas alias Basoo, Zahid Ali, Jahangir alias Bhola, and a lady, Umme-e-Farwa. As per police, the bandits were residents of Pindi Bhattian, district Hafizabad. The police also claimed that the arrested bandits were involved in several cases of armed robberies and dacoity-cum-murder. They were the members of an inter-district gang that was active in Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Sheikhupura, and Lahore.
On November 19, two gunmen shot six people including a shopkeeper and his son on offering resistance during a shop robbery attempt in Pakki Thathi area of Millat Park. Four victims died on the spot while the fifth expired in the hospital the next day. Two passersby and a bicycle mechanic were among the victims.
The deceased were identified by police as Muhammad Amjad, 45; his 22-year-old son Tanzeel Amjad, Muhammad Abbas, 30; Farhan, 30; and Saleemud Din, 55. The sixth victim Gohar Sarfraz, 40, was admitted to the hospital in serious condition. The shooting took place at the Parwaz pan-shop in the low-income neighbourhood.
Extra-judicial killings, also called fake police encounters, are common in this province where police report thousands of cases of killings, dacoities, and armed robberies every year. But the pace and style of executions reflects that the law-enforcement agency has been doing such actions with full backing of the political leadership.
The provincial police killed more than 430 suspected criminals during “gunfire exchange” in different parts of the Punjab province in 2015. More than 300 criminals have been killed in 245 police encounters this year so far, according to police data.
Factually, police are ‘empowered’ to decide the fate of the hardened criminals.
Several police officers who served on key posts favour fake encounters and argue that it is the best way to bring culprits to justice. “Sometime police are left with no other choice except this type of aggressive policing. The courts proceedings are often lengthy and very complicated. Therefore, this is an effective and age-old formula to clean the society from the monsters,” an official commented on the condition of anonymity.
According to him, desperate criminals must be executed because they often got acquitted from the courts due to legal complications and lack of evidences.
However, a few police officers argue that fake encounters in fact trigger lawlessness. Citing crime figures as evidence, they say the formula of extra-judicial killings badly failed to improve the sense of security among the public in recent years.