Complainant claims plainclothes officers took Rs115,000, foreign cigarettes and abducted his brother briefly
KARACHI: In another blow to professional integrity, suspected police officers in Karachi have allegedly looted yet another paan shop, according to a complaint filed at Preedy Police Station by a local resident. Yaqoob reported that his brother Akram was in the shop when plainclothes officers arrived on a police mobile.
One officer stood guard outside while another entered the shop, he said. The plainclothes officers allegedly seized cash from the counter as well as foreign cigarettes, amounting to approximately Rs115,000 in cash and goods, Yaqoob alleged. The complainant further claimed that the officers covered his brother Akram with a cloth and took him away in the police mobile, later releasing him a short distance away. They also reportedly issued severe threats.
Police officials have confirmed that a case has been registered and an investigation is underway. On June 13, police arrested a grade 17 gazetted officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Zafar Javed, and his son Fahad for looting a paan shop in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. The arrests followed the circulation of CCTV footage showing plainclothes officers robbing the shop, which led to an inquiry ordered by the city police chief. Police sources stated that Fahad committed the robberies under his father’s direction.
During the investigation, the complainant, Shah Zeb, identified DSP Zafar Javed as the primary suspect. Shah Zeb noted that at the time of the incident, DSP Javed’s son Fahad and two other policemen were involved. The policemen fled the scene in a police van assigned to DSP Javed two years ago. Police sources confirmed that raids are ongoing to apprehend the two remaining policemen involved in the robbery. Last month, a sessions court acquitted for lack of evidence former South SSP Imran Qureshi, DSP Umair Tariq Bajari and others in a case about a robbery that was committed in the guise of a police raid at the house of a trader in Orangi Town. Another stark example is that of the extrajudicial murder of Naqueebullah Mehsud. In January 2023, a special anti-terrorism court (ATC) acquitted 18 suspects, including former Malir SSP Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan and DSP Qamar Ahmed in the high-profile Naqeebullah murder case.
