News Analysis |
The accused police inspector Tariq Mehmood in the Intizar Ahmed murder case was granted bail by a session’s court on Wednesday. Eight officials of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) were arrested one day after the incident including SHO of the ACLC police station inspector Tariq Mehmood, inspector Azhar Ahsan, head constables Ghulam Abbas, Fawad Khan, Mohammed Daniyal and Bilal Rasheed.
Intizar was shot late Saturday evening on Khayaban-e-Ittehad in Karachi after the police allegedly mistook him for a car thief. The initial police reports were filed against two unidentified men who overtook Intizar’s car and shot him but it was later revealed that he was shot by police officers.
The killings of innocents will continue unless the police officials are properly trained to tackle these situations without the unnecessary use of force.
The suspects were granted interim bail for a sum of Rs. 500,000 till 23rd January. Intizar was a 19-year-old student who was currently studying in Malaysia who had come back on his semester break. He had no known political ties according to his father. The police claim that Intizar was shot because he refused to stop his vehicle at a checkpoint and so the authorities intercepted him and shot at his vehicle to stop him.
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According to the initial report, Intizar was shot at by two 9mm guns with 12 shots being fired from one gun and 6 shots from the other. It is beyond comprehension why so many bullets were shot just to stop a car. The image reveals that the windshield of the car was shot. If they wanted to stop the vehicle, they should have shot at his tyres. The reason of firing at his windshield is not clear.
In June 2016, a man was shot in Karachi for not stopping at a check post. The increasing number of such incidents shows that our police is not properly trained to handle such incidents.
This is not the first case of an innocent being murdered because of police incompetence in Pakistan. A young man was fatally shot last year in Islamabad when he failed to stop at a checkpoint. In May 2015, two young men were shot at by the police in Karachi. In another incident in June the same year, two young men were shot dead by Punjab police in Sadiqabad.
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In June 2016, a man was shot in Karachi for not stopping at a check post. The increasing number of such incidents shows that our police is not properly trained to handle such incidents. The killings of innocents will continue unless the police officials are properly trained to tackle these situations without the unnecessary use of force.