Punjab Inspector General Dr Usman Anwar on Saturday rejected allegations levelled by the PTI blaming the provincial administration for the alleged custodial killing of a party worker, insisting the incident was purely an \u201caccident case\u201d which, he said, was \u201cunfortunately misinterpreted\u201d publicly.<\/p>\n
A PTI worker, Ali Bilal, also known as Zille Shah, died, several others were injured and many picked up on March 8 as the caretaker Punjab government used force to block a rally called to launch the party\u2019s campaign for the April 30 elections in the province.<\/p>\n
On Friday, police claimed to have arrested two suspects, identified as Umar and Jehanzeb, who claimed that Bilal sustained multiple injuries after he was involved in an accident with their car. Dawn quoted sources as saying that the two claimed the accident occurred in Fortress Stadium, where Bilal was present along with five other friends, probably PTI workers.<\/p>\n
The party leadership claims he was tortured and killed while in police custody. The claims of torture have been corroborated by Bilal\u2019s postmortem report, issued by the Mayo Hospital. It said the victim was subjected to \u201cmassive blunt trauma\u201d, while a fracture to his skull and subsequent bleeding has been cited as the cause of death. The report also noted damage to his liver, spleen and testes, which led to profuse bleeding.<\/p>\n
In a press conference in Lahore today, the senior cop along with caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi denied the involvement of provincial administration in the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence clearly indicate that this is an accident case. No accused in this case tried to kill and blame it on the police,\u201d the IG said.<\/p>\n
Narrating the incident, the police official said \u201cthe body of an innocent man was brought to Services Hospital by a black Vigo at 6:52pm [on Wednesday].\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the suspects \u201cclearly looked tense\u201d as seen in CCTV footage.<\/p>\n
commended Punjab police for their efforts in tracing the suspects.<\/p>\n
Commenting on an audio circulating on social media in connection to the incident, Naqvi said the clip did not even need a verification as the veracity of the audio was clearly questionable.<\/p>\n
He also took exception to the PTI for its decision to take out a rally on a day when other public gatherings related to Aurat March and other marches taking place in the Punjab capital.<\/p>\n
Naqvi said elections in the province were approaching near, adding any deterioration in law and order would hamper peace in the province.<\/p>\n
During the press briefing, confessional video statements of the two suspects, who are currently under police custody, were also played.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Punjab Inspector General Dr Usman Anwar on Saturday rejected allegations levelled by the PTI blaming the provincial administration for the alleged custodial killing of a party worker, insisting the incident was purely an \u201caccident case\u201d which, he said, was \u201cunfortunately misinterpreted\u201d publicly. A PTI worker, Ali Bilal, also known as Zille Shah, died, several others […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-318834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n