Rawalpindi - An inquiry has been ordered against a police officer for implicating a youth in alleged fake encounter staged within limits of Police Station Ganjmandi.

Regional Police Officer (RPO) Fayyaz Dev directed acting SP Rawal Tahir to hold inquiry against Station House Officer (SHO) Police Station Ganjmandi Raja Aizaz for implicating a youth Sufyan alias Sonu in bogus encounter case after a citizen lodged complaint with the top police boss.

However, the SP has yet not initiated the inquiry against the police officer or summoned the victim.

Meanwhile, a court on Saturday handed over 4 accused on a 2-day physical remand to police in a case of motorcycle theft.

The court also sent the accused to Adiala Jail on a 14-day judicial remand in ‘fake encounter’ and ‘illegal weapons possession’ cases.

The police team, headed by T-ASI Ishaq, produced the accused before the court of a judicial magistrate Asad Awan and sought 5 days remand for further investigation. However, the magistrate turned down the request of police and awarded physical remand for only two days. The court also ordered police to reproduce the accused before the court on Monday for further proceedings.

Two days ago, Malik Irfan, father of Sufyan, appeared met the RPO in a press conference and tendered an application stating that his son Sufyan along with two other friends were kidnapped from Eidgah by 2 men allegedly on behest of T-ASI Ishaq and was taken to PS Ganjmandi. He mentioned that he visited the police station where Ishaq told him that 3 boys had been arrested for wheeling. The father told the RPO that he managed to secure release of his son that day but Ishaq again summoned Sufyan and his friends on December 22 and detained them in police station. He said that he was told by T-ASI Ishaq that the youth were arrested for their involvement in snatching motorcycles on gunpoint.

“The crime of Sufyan is that he purchased a stolen motorcycle from Haseeb against Rs15,000,” Sufyan’s father quoted Ishaq as saying. He told the RPO that he met SHO Raja Aizaz on December 25 and told him the entire saga and the SHO admitted that Sufyan and others had been detained for interrogation. However, the police had staged a fake encounter on the night of Wednesday and implicated Sufyan in a bogus case, he said. He requested the RPO to launch an inquiry into the case. Taking action, the RPO ordered inquiry into fake encounter by appointing Acting SP Rawal Tahir.

In a background interview with this correspondent, SHO Raja Aizaz on December 26 had admitted that he had detained Sufyan along with two others on charges of snatching motorcycles and their links with ‘gandagir’ gang.

During an interaction with The Nation, RPO Fayyaz Dev said that had directed a probe into the allegations levelled by Malik Ifran and vowed to solve the case on merit. Nonetheless, Malik Irfan, the complainant, while talking to this correspondent, expressed his distrust in the RPO and his team, saying that the acting SP had been trying to save the skin of SHO Raja Aizaz and T-ASI Ishaq.

He said that SHO Raja Aizaz had registered more cases against his son to punish him for lodging complaint with the RPO. He requested Chief Minister Punjab and Inspector General of Police Amjad Javed Salimi to provide justice to his son against the police personnel involved in implicating him in fake cases.