Nankana Sahib’s kabaddi player killed in alleged police encounter

A Nankana Sahib’s kabaddi player was killed in an alleged police encounter in Karachi on Monday.

The family claimed that the police killed their loved one in a fake encounter; however, the police rejected the family’s claim. A large number of members of the Rajput Mayo community gathered outside the Karachi Press Club and staged a protest against the incident, terming it a fake encounter.

Members of the Rajput Mayo community demanded that a case should registered against the policemen involved in Shahbaz’s murder. “The murder case should be registered against those policemen who were involved in Shahbaz’s killing,” the protesters said and alleged that the SHOs of the New Karachi and Bilal Colony police stations were involved in the “extrajudicial killing” of Shahbaz.

They said the victim was the best player of Kabaddi and a student of the captain of the Pakistan kabaddi team. “We will stage a countrywide protest if the police officials and personnel involved in Shahbaz’s killing are not arrested,” they warned. “Shahbaz was killed over a personal enmity and the Karachi police were used for the murder.”

The protesters demanded of Sindh’s inspector general of police and Karachi’s additional IG to take action and get the family justice. On the other hand, New Karachi SHO Nadeem Khan, while talking to media persons, rejected the allegations made against the police by the protesters.

“The police encounter was not fake. The accused was chased and caught,” he claimed. Replying to a question about the protesters’ claim of torture on the victim, SHO Khan said he did not know about torture on the body as no official had tortured the suspect. He said the suspect was shot dead, and that there was a complainant from whom a mobile phone had been snatched.

The alleged police encounter had taken place in the Bilal Colony area within the New Karachi police limits on September 9. Shahbaz’s brother told the media that they had a personal enmity, and two suspects had brought his brother to Karachi for negotiations. “The body of my brother was kept at the morgue for 26 days with clear marks of torture,” he said and demanded that a new postmortem examination should be conducted.