KARACHI: A recent pummelling of two alleged bandits by a mob in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, leading to the death of one of them, turned out to be a “brutal murder” by a government servant and a friend of his.

After a quarrel with two young cousins over “a minor road accident” involving the victims’ rickshaw and the culprit’s car, the perpetrators struck their three-wheeler with the car, beat them badly and then invited area people to pounce on the by then unconscious “robbers”, police said on Wednesday.

Ali Raza, 22, was killed and his cousin, Sajid, was wounded near Kamran Chowrangi in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on April 18.

The police on Wednesday registered a case against the two suspects after media highlighted the issue.

Gulshan SP Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto told Dawn that the police had registered a case on a complaint of the victim’s father under Section 320 (punishment for qatl-i-khata by rash or negligent driving) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Though the father has not nominated anyone in the case, the police during initial investigation have identified one suspect as an employee of the federal government, added Mr Bhutto.

The police conducted a raid on the suspect’s home in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and seized the car used in the incident. Efforts were under way to arrest the culprits, police said.

The wounded cousin of the victim, Sajid, and another close relative of the victim on Wednesday told the media that the cousins had an altercation with the car riders after a minor accident at Munawwar Chowrangi. Subsequently, the car riders chased and hit them at Kamran Chowrangi and beat them severely. When area people reached there, the suspects told them that the thrashed men were ‘bandits’.

The victims were taken to hospital, where Ali Raza died from the “injuries to his head and abdomen”.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2018