RAWALPINDI - A notorious land grabber on Thursday shot dead a police officer to avoid arrest near Gulshanabad on Adyala Road, within the limits of Police Station (PS) Saddar Bairooni.
A property dealer namely Waheed also sustained bullet injury during indiscriminate firing of the land grabber’s accomplices to secure his release from the custody of people who once succeeded in capturing the fleeing murderer.
Raja Sajid, an ill-famed land grabber who had occupied public and government properties in various localities of Adyala Road and was nominated in the case, shot dead Sub Inspector (SI) Mehmood Gondal, Chowky Incharge Adyala, near Gulshanabad, when the police officer tried to arrest him, police and eyewitnesses said.
The killer managed to escape from the crime scene along with his accomplices while police launched a massive manhunt picking up family members of the accused.  The dead body and injured were later shifted to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.
According to the police, a case under sections 506/2, 380, 452, 148 and 149 was filed against Raja Sajid, his brothers and seven of their accomplices on the complaint of a citizen Jamil Hussain son of Shamroz Khan, resident of Hill View Lane on February 14, 2014.
The applicant, in his application, stated that he bought a piece of land near Dehghal and started constructing boundary walls there. Raja Sajid and his brothers along with seven other armed men stormed into his land on February 12, damaged the boundary walls, kicked out the laborers and hurled life threats at him.  SI Mehmood Gondal, who was appointed as Investigation Office of the case, presented record of the case before SP Saddar Dr Sardar Ghias. Then, he left back for Adyala Chowky. Meanwhile, Gondal reached at Gulshanabad, he spotted Sajid and other accused at a property dealer office. He tried to arrest them, but the accused opened firing on the SI killing him on the spot.
An eyewitness told The Nation that the SI along with applicants had tried to catch the accused who was going in his vehicle. He said the accused fired bullets at the SI while sitting in the vehicle. The SI received two bullets in his chest and abdomen and died. The other people managed to capture Raja Sajid, the eyewitness said adding that in the meanwhile Raja Abid, Raja Nawajis and others arrived there and started firing at the capturers and managed to get release of Sajid.
In the firing, a property dealer was injured, he said. Then all the accused fled, he added. A source revealed that the area police had picked up Raja Sajid’s brother-in-law Qadir, two sisters, father-in-law Azam and brother-in-law during raids at Dhoke Paharian, Jarahi and Kalyal.
SSP (Operations) Mian Maqbool, when contacted, confirmed the death of SI, injury of a man and arrests of family members of the killer and said several teams have been constituted to arrest the killers. In a late night development, Raja Sajis reached outside the Rawalpindi Press Club to surrender to the police.
However, he denied his involvement in the murder of the cop.
He said that he was going home when the SI signaled him to stop near Defence Estae, the office of his rivals.
“I thought the SI was needing lift to reach Chowky Adiala. However, the things changed as he took my mobile phones and vehicle’s keys to his custody,” Sajid claimed. Meanwhile, he said, his rivals appeared there and dragged him (Sajid) into their office and started tying his feet and hands with rope. “Later, I heard the sound of gun shots and was informed the somebody had gunned down the SI,” Sajid explained. This is interesting to note here that no police party had reached the Press Club to arrest Sajid.
CPO, SP Saddar, DSP and SHO Saddar Bairooni were not available to comment on this development.