Category: Crime

Police in Lahore have arrested two Punjab University (PU) students for the alleged murder of a fellow student earlier this week.

It was on Dec 4, reported that Rana Ammar, a Gender Studies student from PU, was shot dead on campus. He was immediately rushed to the Shaikh Zayed Hospital but succumbed to his injuries. 

The death triggered protests for the safety of students, especially on campuses.

An investigation by Muslim Town police revealed that Ammar was accidentally shot and injured by fellow students Huzaifa and Dilawar while the three of them were in a car.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Faisal Kamran told media that the three students, who were also friends, were sitting in a car outside a cafeteria of the varsity’s New Campus when the gun went off, killing Ammar.

It was first claimed that one of the two accused fled while the other took Ammar to the hospital, DIG Kamran clarified that both the students had been arrested.

Earlier, Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) led protests against the murder amid the varsity administration’s claims of a “mysterious death” with no such incident taking place. 

However, a case was registered on the plaint of Rana Akhtar, the father of the deceased, who alleged that Huzaifa and Dilawar had developed a grudge against Ammar after an altercation some days ago.

The complaint stated that Ammar’s friends called him for lunch at the cafeteria, where they opened fire after the meal.

Meanwhile, PU administration has initiated disciplinary action against student protesters of the IJT for damages to varsity property.

The administration has reportedly identified 11 IJT protestors involved in the attacks at various locations with the help of eyewitnesses and CCTV footage. The process of identifying 30 others is ongoing.

A letter has also been sent to the disciplinary committee for legal action against those involved in propaganda and vandalism.

A varsity spokesperson said that the mention of the cafeteria in the FIR was based on “hearsay” and yet to be investigated. He also rejected IJT’s claims that motorcyclists opened fire on the student and accused them of spreading rumours about the circumstances surrounding Ammar’s death.

This is not the first time that unconfirmed reports led to violent protests on campus.
In October, protests broke out at different campuses of the Punjab Group of Colleges (PGC) over fake reports of sexual assault against a female student.

The claims by protesting students were rubbished by college administration and government officials alike.

A student of the Punjab University in Lahore has allegedly been murdered on campus within the institution’s premises on Thursday, triggering protests in the New Campus.

The News has reported that the PU administration has denied that the murder took place, instead terming it “a mysterious death”. 

Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, has alleged that the murder happened on campus. 

Progressive Students Collective (PSC), a left-leaning student group, claimed in a social media post: “Today [Yesterday, December 5], a student of Gender Studies in Punjab University named Ammar Rana was murdered inside the campus in broad daylight.”

PSC condemned the murder while questioning the state of security inside the University campus and the administration’s denial in an attempt to silence protesting students.

However, amid conflicting reports, the most dominant ones suggest that Rana Ammar Akhtar, a 22-year-old Gender Studies student from Kasur, was fatally wounded in a shooting incident. He was immediately rushed to the nearby Shaikh Zayed Hospital but succumbed to his injuries. 

The victim suffered three gunshot wounds to the chest, stomach, and leg. 

His body was handed over to the police for postmortem examination.

The details leading up to the incident suggest that the deceased student, Rana Ammar, along with three friends of the Department of Gender Studies Dilawar and Huzaifa, were sitting in their car outside PC Dhaba when the pistol in Huzaifa’s hands went off, and three bullets hit Ammar in the chest.

Huzaifa immediately fled the scene while Dilawar took Ammar to Sheikh Zaid Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

However, police took Dilawar into custody.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) operations Faisal Kamran told Dawn that three students, who were also friends, were sitting in a car outside a cafeteria on the new campus of the university when their gun went off, claiming the life of the said victim.

Following the tragic murder, Islami Jamiat Talaba students staged a protest outside the campus, which resulted in severe traffic disruptions on some of the busiest roads of the city- Canal Road, Barkat Market, and nearby areas. 

Police was deployed at the scene to control the situation and prevent it from deteriorating further. 

However, after negotiations with the protesters, the students eventually dispersed and the road was reopened for traffic. 

Videos of the protesting students vandalising the university’s admin block and later staging a sit-in flooded social media.

Notably, Punjab University officials conducted a press conference and reiterated their version of the story, stating that their investigation found no evidence of a shooting incident on campus.

They said that security staff reviewed CCTV footage from all locations mentioned by the Jamiat protestors yet found no signs of gunfire, bullet shells, blood, or eyewitness accounts to support their claim.

While accusing IJT of politicising the situation and manipulating the students, the Punjab University officials informed the media that the deceased student was a relative of a University administrative officer. 

The administration said that while they regretted the student’s death, they have investigated that the student is the nephew of PU’s admin officer Rana Irshad, and according to him, the deceased had no connection with any student organisation.

They said the PU administration will not get blackmailed by anyone stating the damage caused to the admin block by the IJT students. Officials requested that the media, students, teachers, and employees not believe in hearsay.

Additionally, they said that the university administration is in contact with the police for investigation.

Meanwhile, University teachers and students are calling for an independent investigation to uncover the truth behind the incident and ensure campus safety, as the frequency of these incidents has intensified in the previous month.

A man in Sheikhupura has been arrested for killing his cousin before cutting off his thumb to withdraw PKR one million from the ATM. 

Initial police investigations suggest that the man killed his maternal cousin with the help of accomplices. The dead man was later recovered from a car.

The primary reason behind the murder was to get access to the victim’s bank account.  
Resultantly, after the murder, the accused chopped off the victim’s thumb to withdraw money through an ATM. 

24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday revealed that a police team found the body of a young man wrapped in a sack while checking a suspicious parked car. Finding the body with one thumb cut off led to the search for the murderer, which was completed within hours through the use of CCTV cameras and modern technology. 

The police have established that the victim, Yasmin, was called by the suspect from Faisalabad. 

Yasin’s body was placed in the trunk of the car. He was the only son of his parents.
Geo News quoted police sources saying that the suspect and his accomplices were about to throw the body into a canal when they were caught.

Further investigations into the cold-blooded murder are underway.

Earlier in the year, a similar incident happened in America when a woman reportedly chopped off a man’s thumb and used it to access his financial apps and steal his money. 

53-year-old Fasil Teklemariam was found dead with stab wounds on April 5 after police was called to his apartment for a report of an unconscious person, according to Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police.

19-year-old Audrey Miller was arrested on June 17 in connection with his murder and was later charged with first-degree murder.

A newlywed woman died after accidentally shooting herself while making a video with a pistol in her hand in a village near Buchiana, in the Jaranwala area of Faisalabad.

The 22-year-old girl is the daughter of Abbas Jatt of Chak 233-GB. She had been married just two days earlier to Azmat, a resident of the same village. 

ARY News reported that the police have been giving contradictory explanations, saying that she was shot by a bullet coming from an unidentified direction. 

Meanwhile, Geo News reports that the initial investigation by the police suggests she was making a video wielding a pistol at her in-laws’ house when the gun went off.

Posing for the video, Fatima reportedly placed a pistol against her forehead, which then accidentally discharged, killing her on the spot. 

Upon receiving the news, local police officials, including the Superintendent Police Jaranwala and the Station House Officer of Saddar police station, arrived at the scene with a team to investigate the matter. 

A case has been registered in light of the statement of Fatima’s mother.

While there is a general trend of firing in celebration at weddings in remote areas, the presence of a gun at home is not a surprise. 

This is not a one-of-a-kind incident, as a 16-year-old boy was accidentally shot dead while recording a Tiktok video with his friends in Sialkot’s Kharota Syedan area back in 2019. 

While his friends said that the teen, identified as Ammar Haider, shot himself accidentally in the stomach while they were shooting a video, his parents claimed that one of his friends shot him intentionally.

Earlier this year, a similar incident happened in May when a teenage student who worked at a call centre in Karachi killed himself accidentally while filming a TikTok video.

The police said that teenager Abdullah Mehmood, along with his friend, was filming a TikTok video with a pistol which went off, killing the 16-year-old on the site.

Following the incident, police officials sealed the call centre to investigate the matter. 

The TikTok craze has been claiming lives worldwide. In 2022, the Associated Press reported that a TikTok trend pertaining to choking oneself with a household object caused the deaths of 20 children in 18 months.

A woman died in Lahore after her in-laws allegedly beat her with rods on Monday, December 2. 

Initial investigations by the police suggest that the incident took place in the Mughalpura area of Lahore, where a woman named Aniqa lost her life after her in-laws turned violent. 

The police revealed that the victim’s father, Sheikh Shaukat Javed, filed a complaint with the Mughalpura police in which it is stated that his daughter Aniqa was married to a man named Junaid Ghulam Fareed four years ago. 

The couple had disagreements after the marriage, and Aniqa was subjected to assault by the husband and his family over various domestic issues. 

Shaukat also told the police that on the day of the incident, Aniqa’s neighbours alerted him that Junaid and his family were again subjecting his daughter to severe torture.  

As he rushed to his daughter’s house, he allegedly saw Junaid, his parents, and sisters beating his daughter with rods and clubs.

He further said that upon his arrival, the suspects immediately moved his daughter to an undisclosed location. 

Later, he was informed that Aniqa died at a hospital due to severe injuries sustained from the beating. 

Media reports said the husband has been taken into police custody, while his parents and sisters remain at large. 

The police shifted the victim’s body to the morgue for an autopsy while the investigation is underway. 

Late in August, a woman from Shadbagh, Lahore, identified as Laiba, was allegedly tortured and thrown off the roof of her house by her husband and in-laws.

The police investigation suggested that the husband was a drug addict and 24-year-old Laiba was married to him six years ago. 

A recent case of a pregnant woman from Daska, Sialkot, who suffocated to death and was eventually cut into pieces by in-laws because they suspected her involvement in witchcraft also made headlines all over the country.

A report by Sahil, a group dedicated to work for the most vulnerable in the society observed that in the first six months of the year, violence against women cases surged to a total number of 1,732, as per the reports, which included different forms of violence such as murder, suicide, abduction, rape, honour killing and torture.

A man killed his wife and children after poisoning them and later committed suicide on November 29 in the area of Tharparkar. 

Local police recovered five bodies from a house in Koya village of Nangarparkar, a suburb of Tharparkar, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Saturday. 

The initial report by the police reveals that the man allegedly poisoned his three children and wife before committing suicide by hanging himself. 

The deceased include a husband, wife, one daughter and two sons, as per the report.
Police say that the bodies have been shifted to Tehsil Hospital Nagarparkar while an investigation into the incident has been initiated. 

According to the initial investigation, the head of the house, Shankar, first poisoned his wife and children and then committed suicide by hanging himself.

Upon receiving information about the incident, a police team was dispatched towards the spot as the village where the incident had happened is remote.

However, the SHO of Nagarparkar asserted that more details will be revealed when the police team returns.

A report suggests that the number of incidents declared as suicide in Tharparkar-a, a region plagued by poverty, limited sources and water this year alone, has reached 135.

A similar incident happened in Lahore when the head of a household in the Shahdara Town area fed poisonous pills to his family on August 28.

Local police at the time of the incident said that the suspect fed poisonous pills to seven people, including his wife and children.

However, the family was saved by timely medical assistance.

The man said in his statement that he tried to poison his family because of poverty.

“There is not a grain of food in the house, rent has not been paid for seven months. Tired of poverty, I poisoned my wife, children and myself,” he stated.

A primary school teacher of Sargodha has been suspended on allegations of provoking his colleagues on social media against the government while being on duty. 

The action was taken under the Punjab Employees, Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act 2006 (PEEDA).

Asad Hayat, who was appointed in Primary School Chak number 5 Rakh Dharema, was suspended by Sargodha District Education Officer (DEO) with immediate effect on charges of spreading propaganda against state institutions, the present government, misuse of social media, misconduct and using the internet during duty hours.

Geo News shared the suspension order, which states, “The services of Asad Hayat, PST, Govt. Primary School Chak No.5 Rakh Dharema Sargodha are hereby suspended with immediate effect under the PEEDA Act-2006.”

The sections under which he has been suspended were not mentioned in the notification. Asad was directed to report to the concerned office immediately.

In September, a show cause notice was issued to the Headmaster of the Government Special Education Center Chichawatani District in Sahiwal for passing political remarks on WhatsApp.

The notice served to him stated that a complaint had been filed against Abdul Karim, the headmaster, on the Chief Minister of Punjab’s complaint portal, saying that he had made statements on a WhatsApp group that were meant to discredit the government of Punjab.

The show cause notice was issued under Section 7(b) and Section 5(1)(a) of the Peeda Act, 2006. 

In October, four teachers of Kasur’s Government Girls High School Basti Lal Shah Tehsil were suspended for cutting spinach within the school to make saag- a popular local dish.

 
The charges pressed against them were in terms of section 6 read with section 5 of the PEEDA Act [Punjab Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act], 2006.

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) worker from Narowal, who was injured after falling from a roof during a police raid at his home, has died while admitted to a hospital.

The PTI district president has also confirmed the worker’s death in his statement, Geo News reported.

The worker’s name was Yasir Malhi, and he was not just a die-hard PTI fan but also a father. His relatives protested against the police brutality in front of the Baddo Malhi police station.

His young son, while talking to the media, said that during the raid, his father had climbed onto the roof of the house, and the police personnel had hit him with a brick on his head.

A video of Yasir’s son has been widely shared on social media, and the child can be seen crying and narrating the whole incident of his father’s fall. He laments that he has been “orphaned”. 

Describing the incident, he also detailed that as the police raided their house, his father “ran to save himself. He was followed by a servant. He tripped, and they [police] hit him hard with a brick.”

NL News Alert, a local channel from Narowal, has reported the details. Reporter Rana Muhammad Imran shared the video of the child on TikTok. The text on the viral video also claims that the victim’s family has also pardoned the police, indicating a settlement between them. 

The spokesman of the local police representing the District Police Officer, however, said that the police had nothing to do with Yasir’s death.

In another video shared from another TikTok account by the name of Hafiz Shahid Express shared the picture of the deceased. He also posted a video of the victim’s family negotiating with the police and stating that the purpose of the protest was to curb this problem of people getting killed at the hands of the police.

“We request you not to do this kind of injustice from here onwards with anyone else,” a man said to the police officer with the tag of Deputy Superintendant of Police (DSP) on his uniform, who can be seen nodding in affirmation. 

In the same video, another person could be heard crying and wailing. 

Social media is simultaneously abuzz with the criticism of the Punjab Police and the ongoing crackdown on PTI followers in the light of the upcoming PTI protest on November 24.