Daily Times

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 a road “accident case” which, he said, was “unfortunately misinterpreted” publicly. A PTI worker, Ali Bilal, also known as Zillay 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’s campaign for the April 30 elections in the province. In a press conference in Lahore, the senior cop along with caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi denied the involvement of provincial administration in the incident. “The evidence clearly indicate that this is an accident case. None of the accused in this case tried to kill and blame it on the police,” the IG said.

Narrating the incident, the police official said “the body of an innocent man was brought to Services Hospital by a black Vigo at 6:52pm [on Wednesday].” He said the suspects “clearly looked tense” as seen in CCTV footage. “They also tried to save the victim at one point and then transport him to the hospital. Then the manner in which the incident was misinterpreted was quite unfortunate,” the senior cop explained. He said the owner of the vehicle had been identified as Raja Shakeel, who is vice president of the PTI in Central Punjab. “He had no intention to kill the worker, but this is where the problem started from.”

Dr. Anwar said the conspiracy was foiled by technical teams of the police probing the case. “We got all evidences and details of phone calls made by political leaders to different people.” The IG insisted that people aboard the car were not criminals as, according to him, they tried to save the man after hitting him. However, false videos and messages were posted on social media to portray police and the administration in a bad light. The Punjab IG said the car involved in the accident was traced through 31 CCTV cameras.