Daily Times

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Lahore Shariq Jamal was found dead in mysterious circumstances in Defence Housing Authority area, here on Saturday.

On getting information, the police rushed to the spot and shifted the body to National Hospital. Medical professionals confirmed that the DIG had passed away much before he was brought to the medical facility.

Authorities have initiated an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death. No family members were present at the time of his death. According to reports, DIG Shariq Jamal had sent his two house servants away before he died.

Upon their return, they found him dead in his bedroom and immediately informed the police. Later, the body was shifted to hospital for postmortem examination.

Police on Saturday took a man and his wife into custody to further the investigations into the sudden demise of Shariq Jamal.

The police higher-up was found dead in suspicious circumstances at his residence, as reported initially when the couple shifted him to a private hospital in Lahore’s DHA from his residence. However, when the police further dug into the matter, it came to the fore that the DIG was at the couple’s flat at the time of his death.

The couple revealed that Jamal was with them at their flat and they brought him to the medical facility upon deterioration of his health.

As per details, Jamal was brought to a private hospital in DHA at 1:30am and declared dead on arrival. The police confirmed the couple’s statement saying that the senior police official was not at his home, but at an apartment in Lahore, from where he had been shifted to the hospital. The circumstances surrounding Jamal’s sudden death raised concerns, leading the authorities to launch a thorough investigation into the incident.

Though the family didn’t want the autopsy to be conducted, the body of the deceased cop was sent to Jinnah Hospital for a postmortem at the police’s insistence.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) team and police inspected the said apartment and collected some evidence such as samples from food and utensils to be later sent for examination.

It may be noted that Jamal played a key role as Investigations DIG in the probe and arrests of the suspects in the Minar-e-Pakistan harassment case. Later in the evening, the funeral prayers for DIG Shariq Jamal was offered in the haveli of his father-in-law Mian Maqbool at Maqbool Road, Ichhra. DIG Operations Lahore Ali Nasir Rizvi, Additional IG Operations Punjab Shahzad Sultan, DIG Logistics Punjab Athar Ismail, DIG Amin Bokhari, and others belonging to different departments and relatives attended the funeral prayers. Later, the deceased was buried at a graveyard in Ichhra area. Shariq Jamal had served in various roles including DIG traffic and DIG Railways.