By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: A medical doctor accused of blasphemy was killed in a staged police encounter, Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar said on Thursday, contradicting initial claims of a shootout.
Dr. Shahnawaz Kunbhar was shot dead during a gun battle with police in Mirpurkhas on September 19, but an inquiry committee concluded that the incident was a “managed encounter”.
Dr. Kunbhar had surrendered to the police the previous week after receiving assurances that he would be allowed to prove his innocence. However, a mob in Umerkot had accused him of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and sharing blasphemous content on social media, demanding his arrest and burning his clinic.
Dr. Kunbhar was taken into “protective custody” on September 18 and later transferred to Mirpurkhas, where he was killed by Sindhri police. Initially, police claimed Dr. Kunbhar and his accomplices opened fire, prompting retaliatory action. However, the investigation committee led by DIG Pervaiz Chandio found the encounter to be fake.
Dr. Kunbhar family also disputes the police account, claiming he was murdered in custody.
“The whole episode was not seriously handled as per law and police rules, lacking overall command and failure to take decisions,” the committee report stated.
The provincial Sindh government has booked DIG and SSP Mirpurkhas in Dr Kunbhar killing, and they have been suspended.
Minister Lanjar confirmed the findings, saying Dr. Shahnawaz was killed in a “fake encounter”. ” Our police officers are involved in this incident… We are ordering a registration of first information report against them,” the minister said.
The 31-page investigation report reviewed CCTV footage, call data records, and traced mobile phones. It concluded that Mirpurkhas police killed Dr. Kunbhar in a “managed encounter” and tried to give it a legal cover but failed.
“This illegal action of police officials brought very bad name to the Sindh Police, otherwise, which holds an outstanding history regarding maintaining religious equilibrium throughout the province of Sindh in such challenging times,” the report stated.
Lanjar assured that “no one will be spared and the committee’s findings have been shared with Dr. Shahnawaz’s family. “The Supreme Court has ruled that only one FIR can be registered per crime, we are giving the family liberty to file the FIR (against the police)… If they don’t, then the state is responsible and will file an FIR.”
The Sindh government suspended 10 officers, including a deputy inspector general, and registered a case against 34 suspects for burning Dr. Kanbhar’s body.
The minister said the inquiry focused on the encounter, not the blasphemy allegations. “Regarding the doctor and whether or not he committed blasphemy, we’ve sent the evidence for forensic analysis,” he added.
“Please, do not jump to conclusions. Once that comes through we will proceed with an investigation.”
Lanjar warned that politicians who praised the killing and later burning of the body would face investigation, and FIRs would be registered against them. “This will not be tolerated.”
A lawmaker of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, Pir Ameer Ali Shah Jeelani had garlanded the police officers involved in the killing of the doctor, sparking outrage on social media. “We want to perform the inquiry into our own officers. If needed, we will perform investigations into others allegedly involved. We are not afraid,” the minister added. “No extrajudicial incident is tolerable.”
Accusations of blasphemy — sometimes even just rumors — can spark riots and mob rampages in Pakistan. Although killings of blasphemy suspects by mobs are common, extrajudicial killings by police are rare, especially in Sindh, which is generally more tolerant of religious divides than Punjab and the orthodox northwestern KPK.
Dr. Kunbhar’s father thanked the government for backing the family and demanded that his son’s killers face justice under the eye-for-an-eye concept under Sharia, or Islamic law.
“We have only one demand: those police officers who staged the killing of my son… must also be killed in the same manner,” said Dr. Kunbhar’s father, Mohammad Saleh.
“Those who killed my son should be punished quickly so that others learn a lesson and refrain from extrajudicial killings in the future,” Dr. Kunbhar’s mother, Rehmat Kunbar, said. She added that her son can no longer come back to her, but she wants to save other parents’ children from extremists.
Dr. Kunbhar’s killing was the second case of extrajudicial killing by police this month in Pakistan.
A week prior, an officer opened fire inside a police station in Quetta, fatally wounding Syed Khan, a suspect held on accusations of blasphemy.
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