SHC takes suo motu notice of Mirpurkhas rape incident
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed senior officials of the Mirpurkhas police to submit a detailed report to Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh on the alleged gang-rape of two girls in Naukot on February 6.
In a letter to the police, the court ordered the Mirpurkhas Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Zulfiqar Ali Mahar and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Muhamamad Asad Ali Chaudhri to appear before the SHC Chief Justice on February 15 and provide details of the investigation in the incident.
Meanwhile, SSP Chaudhry suspended the Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Gulzar Tungri of the Nafees Nagar police and ordered a departmental inquiry against him after the two rape survivor’s alleged they had been initially detained at his house before they were shifted to another place by their abductors.
Two accused, Hayat Tungri (whose home the girls recovered from in the February 7 police raid) and Budho Tungri secured pre-arrest bail from a District and Sessions Court on Wednesday.
Student injured in police “encounter” in Islamabad
A 10th grader was injured by police in an alleged encounter in Jhangi Syedian, Islamabad.
According to the victim’s father, Mohammad Kamran, his son Huzaifa and his two friends Haider and Jaral were on their way home when four policemen suddenly opened fire on them. He stated Huzaifa called him and told him what happened, however one of the accused policemen snatched his phone mid-call.
The complainant said he reached the scene where he found his son on the roadside, while his friends had been taken to Noon police station. Kamran said that he took Huzaifa to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for treatment just as senior police officials also arrived at the spot. He claimed that he later visited the police station to release his son’s friends.
The complainant stated that senior police officials urged him to nominate one suspect instead of the four in order to settle the matter.
In a statement, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammad Ahsan Younas stated that the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Faisal Kamran has been ordered to an inquire into the incident.
According to police, the area where the three boys were travelling was under high alert following reports that three suspects were on the run after mugging locals at gunpoint. The police personnel deployed at the scene spotted a boy with a yellow bag who fled after seeing them, at which the officers fired two shots.
The inquiry report stated that they had violated standard operating procedure (SOP) and that the incident came about due to an error in judgement. A case has been registered against the four accused.
Two workers dead in Kasur factory fire
Two workers were killed while fifteen were reportedly injured in a fire that broke out in the warehouse of a paper mill near Sheikhum village in the Pattoki tehsil of Kasur district on Wednesday.
The fire is believed to have occurred at around 6PM due to a short circuit or gas explosion in the warehouse of the Bulleh Shah Paper Mills, which quickly spread to the mills. The injured have been shifted to the district headquarters (DHQ) hospital Kasur, while around 60 rescuers from Lahore, Okara, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala and Kasur are currently engaged in controlling the blaze.
The deceased are identified as Amjad Kamboh from Kot Radha Kishan and Maqsood Ahmed from Lahore.