Daily Times

Four police officers were arrested on Wednesday after a 19-month-old boy was killed in crossfire near Safoora Chowrangi at Karachi’s University Road during a shootout with suspected criminals.

The toddler, Ahsan, died when a bullet entered his chest and exited through his back, the post-mortem report revealed. The bullet also grazed and injured the child’s father, Kashif Raja, who said his son was killed by a bullet fired by a policeman while the family was getting onto a rickshaw on Tuesday evening.

The child’s funeral prayer was offered on Wednesday morning in Block 8 of Gulistan-e-Johar.

The arrested policemen have been charged with murder and attempted murder after a first information report (FIR) was registered on behalf of the child’s father.

The bereaved parents, however, rejected the FIR, saying that it was not filed according to their wishes and that the police were trying to protect the officials involved in the incident.

Talking to a private news channel, the deceased child’s mother said she, her husband, and her late son were going to the market to buy groceries in a rickshaw when the police officers riding a motorcycle started firing.

The officers, she claimed, opened fire right in front of her and there was no “encounter”.

According to Additional Police Surgeon Dr Shiraz, the toddler was shot from a distance of 10-15 feet. The surgeon determined that the cause of death was a bullet to the chest.