Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar on Wednesday formed a committee to look into the killing of Irfan Jatoi, a student of the Sindh University who was killed in an alleged ‘encounter’ in Sukkur.
According to an order issued by the IGP office, an inquiry committee was constituted to probe into the first information report registered under Sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 324 (attempt to murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at Jhangro police station, district Sukkur, regarding the alleged police encounter that took place on the National Highway near a fish farm at Mando Dero.
The inquiry body will be led by Hyderabad Additional IGP Dr Jameel Ahmed and comprise Mirpurkhas Deputy IG Zulfiqar Larik and Kashmore Senior Superintendent (SSP) Amjad Ahmed Shaikh as members.
The committee will have to present a detailed report of its findings within seven days, it was learned.
The incident, wherein a student of the University of Sindh was forcibly taken from his hostel on February 10 and was shot dead in an alleged police encounter on Sunday in Sukkur district, sparked public outrage a day earlier.
Activists and peers of the deceased had taken to social media to raise hue and cry over the incident, while the police had claimed that the student, 25-year-old Jatoi, was part of a car lifting gang.
The alleged encounter took place on the National Highway in the limits of Jhangro Police Station. The police had claimed that three of Jatoi’s accomplices escaped.
“The police received a tip-off that some outlaws have been seen…with the noticeable intent of committing a robbery,” Sukkur SSP Irfan Samo had said a day earlier.
Jatoi’s family have maintained his innocence since his abduction and had filed a petition in the Jamshoro district and sessions court a day after he was allegedly picked up by the police from the hostel.
When the police were summoned before the court, they had pled ignorance about any arrest. However, the family had maintained that Jatoi has been missing for three weeks and the police are demanding bribes for his release.
Reacting to the killing, Lahori academic Dr Ammar Ali Jan had said that he was shocked to hear of the incident and any “silence would mean complicity” on part of the Sindh government.
Similarly, activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir had said that the deceased was alleged to be a wanted criminal by Sukkur police while many on social media were saying that he had been abducted from the Sindh University premises.
He had called for the provincial police chief to launch an inquiry under Section 5 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Nasir had also called for the office of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to address the incident and “issue a statement on this encounter which has seemed to raise many questions”.
“History of encounters in Sindh is tainted with repeated abuse of power and encounter specialists enjoying undue patronage of government.”
