CCTV footage exposes fake police encounter

The closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the killing of a man, Maqsood, in Karachi has exposed the fake encounter by Karachi police on the city's Sharea Faisal in January this year.

The footage emerged on Wednesday in which police officers can be seen firing on Maqsood, who was travelling in a rickshaw. It starts off with the rickshaw overturning near Faisal Base, after which police officers surround it and then forcibly take out the passenger (identified as Maqsood) from it. The officers then open fire on the youth.

Law enforcement authorities on January 20 claimed to have killed a wanted suspect, Maqsood, in a shootout near Faisal Base on Sharea Faisal. However, hours later, police backtracked on their initial statement, stating that the citizen was in fact killed due to the firing of the real suspect engaged in a shootout with the police.

Four policemen of the Sharea Faisal police station are nominated in the case. Police, in a charge sheet submitted on March 24 in the Maqsood killing case, stated that ASI Tariq shot the man from a close range.

The charge sheet further stated that Tariq shot two other people after dragging them out of the rickshaw, along with Maqsood. Sheikh Muhammad, the father of the deceased, had expressed reservations over the charge sheet, demanding of the authorities to make the CCTV video of the incident public.

“My son was martyred by the police. I have not received any justice. He was not carrying a weapon; I demand that the authorities release the CCTV video so that people can know the truth,” he had said.

Social activist Jibran Nasir, during a press conference on Wednesday, raised questions on the accountability process of the black sheep in the police force. “We are proud of the police officers who sacrifice their lives while performing their duty, but what about those officers who wear the police uniform but consider the life of their [Maqsood’s parents’] son a prop?” he asked.  

“The media does not have time to cover every murder in the country in detail and the family of every citizen killed cannot hold protests or get the same media attention,” Nasir said. “We had requested the provincial government to bring reforms to laws in the province, so a proper inquiry process for encounters could be established, but before something could be done, their tenure ended,” he added. On April 4, the Sindh Police included terrorism charges against the suspects named in the case.

Nasir sheds more light

Nasir, who played a key role in highlighting the case, spoke to Geo News later on Wednesday. The social activist was accompanied by Maqsood's sister, Benazir.

Nasir said that police had the CCTV video since March 22. He said there were three policemen involved in the killing, while the other two were their “personal goons.” The social activist identified the two other men with the police as Mohsin Qamar and Ashiq Hussain.

“They first wounded unarmed thieves using official weapons, and then they fired five shots at Maqsood and rickshaw driver Rauf using illegal arms,” he explained. “Those illegal arms were then associated with the thieves and they were wrongly portrayed as terrorists, and then the policemen claimed to have arrested these fake terrorists, hence becoming fake super cop and hero.”

Nasir said the Sindh police also rewarded these policemen for the encounter and continued to have the stance that there was no CCTV footage of the incident. He also lamented no reforms being introduced in the provincial police department to avoid such killings. Maqsood's sister, Benazir, said that she hopes that the case would proceed and the killers of her brother will be hanged.