Highway police shoot 'innocent' car driver dead.

FAISALABAD -- Four employees of the Punjab Highway Patrolling Police (PHPP) were taken into custody on charges of opening fire on a car and killing its driver, allegedly without any provocation, near Chak 258-RB, Pharala, on Wednesday night.

The policemen were taken into custody after initial inquiry showed the car riders were unarmed and innocent.

The incident occurred less than a fortnight after a similar episode in Islamabad, where police had shot dead an innocent youth, without any provocation.

A case under sections 34, 201 and 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) has been registered against the suspects on the complaint of one of the car occupants, Awais, of Chak 475-GB, Samundari.

In the first information report, Awais submitted that he, along with Waqas Ahmed and Majid Sattar, was travelling by a car when the PHPP personnel led by Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Shahid Manzoor signalled them to stop at a picket.

The complainant said as the driver, Waqas Ahmed, stopped the car, one of its tyres mistakenly touched the ASI's foot. The ASI became furious and started hurling abuses at them, he added.

He said, meanwhile, the other policemen pointed their guns at Ahmed, when he objected to the behaviour of the ASI.

To avoid the wrath of the policemen, he said, Ahmed sped away from the spot and the policemen started chasing the car.

Near Chak 258-RB, he said, the panicked driver left the car in an attempt to escape.

Meanwhile, he said, the police party arrived their and Constable Usman Hameed opened fire on Ahmed, without any warning or provocation. The bullet hit Ahmed in the belly and he fell on the ground, he said. Other policemen, he said, started hitting the injured man with kicks and rifle butts.

Meanwhile, he said scores of people gathered on the spot and witnessed the whole episode.

He said apparently to avoid any public reaction the policemen resorted to aerial firing and then fled away with the dead body and the car as well.

Sources said immediately after the incident the officers of the PHPP and the district police ordered a probe into the issue...

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