Karachi police in a bid to save their colleagues accused of carrying out a ‘fake encounter’, presented a challan in the court declaring Abbas, the driver of PTI leader Laila Parveen, as a robber, in the alleged encounter case which had taken place in Defence last year, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

As per the challan submitted in the court, the police maintained, “When the suspicious vehicle was signalled to stop, the accused escaped to a nearby bungalow. He then opened fire on the police party from the bungalow and in the crossfire five accused were injured and killed.”

The four accused were identified as Abbas, Ghulam Mustafa, Muhammad Abid and Riaz. An accused who was critically injured could not reveal his name, police challan maintained. 

A 30-bore pistol was recovered from the slain accused and when police contacted bungalows where the encounter had happened for CCTV footage of the incident, they came to know that CCTV cameras in their houses were not operational due to the rain.

Police in the challan submitted said allegations of attempted murder and illegal weapons procession are proven against the five accused, including driver Abbas.

It is pertinent to note that the alleged police encounter took place last year within the precincts of Ghizri Police Station in which the police claimed to have killed five suspects during an encounter including the driver of the PTI leader but later it was revealed that Abbas was killed in a fake police encounter.

An application was filed against the police party and the officers under the provisions of attempted murder and terrorism clauses but, a few days later, the request to register a case against the police was withdrawn, the TV channel reported.