LAHORE: A dacoit was arrested in a wounded condition during an alleged police encounter in the Sundar area, while his accomplice escaped, police said.
According to police, Sundar police signalled two motorcyclists to stop at a checkpoint. Instead of stopping, the suspects allegedly opened direct fire on the police party and attempted to flee.
Police said they pursued the fleeing suspects. During the chase, one of the suspects was wounded by fire from his own accomplice, while the second suspect escaped from the scene.
SP Saddar Abdullah Imran Cheema said the injured suspect has been identified as Khalid Younas. The wounded man was shifted to hospital for medical treatment, and legal proceedings in the incident have been initiated.
Police said efforts are continuing to arrest the suspect who escaped.
The police account — that the injured man was struck by his own accomplice’s fire rather than by police fire — is a specific factual claim, and one that is capable of being tested by evidence rather than left as assertion.
In Punjab, the standard route is forensic. The bullet or fragments recovered during the injured man’s medical treatment are sent for ballistic comparison against the weapons recovered from the scene and against police-issue weapons. The medico-legal report records the wound track, entry and exit characteristics and any range indicators. Empty casings lifted from the site are matched to specific firearms. Where those elements corroborate one another, the account is substantiated on the record rather than accepted on the word of the party involved.
Punjab operates a defined procedure for police encounters. A separate FIR is registered for the firing on the police party, distinct from any existing case against the suspects. The incident is reported up the divisional chain, a magisterial or departmental inquiry may be initiated where a death has occurred, and the injured person’s medical treatment is documented through the medico-legal system.
The Punjab Police standing instructions also require that the injured person’s family be informed and that the person be produced before a magistrate once medically fit, with judicial remand recorded in the normal way. These requirements exist so that the evidentiary record in an encounter case is built contemporaneously rather than reconstructed afterwards.
Sundar sits on Lahore’s south-western edge, on the corridor running towards Raiwind and the industrial estate, where the city’s built-up area gives way to agricultural land and where motorcycle-borne street crime has been a recurring enforcement concern. Checkpoint interceptions of two-up motorcyclists are a core element of the pattern of policing in the belt, precisely because motorcycles are the standard vehicle in snatching and armed robbery cases.
No statement has been issued on behalf of the arrested man, and the allegations against him are untested. The Lahore Times notes that he has not been convicted of any offence arising from this incident and will report any account offered by him or his counsel.
Legal proceedings have been initiated and the search for the second suspect is continuing.
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