Peshawar traders allege police shielded robbery suspects — Dawn
In Peshawar, Pakistan, two auto parts traders accused a local deputy superintendent of police and several law enforcement officers of allegedly shielding suspects in the robbery of their shop. As Dawn reports, Qasim Subhan and his brother Fazal Subhan appealed to the city police chief to intervene in the investigation, detain the suspects and recover the stolen property.
Claim of an attack on the shop
According to Fazal Subhan, at around 2 p.m. on Friday, 13 armed men stormed their shop at the Naak market in the Shoba Bazaar area. He claims that the attackers held him and his two sons at gunpoint before loading auto parts worth more than 10 million Pakistani rupees into a van.
The men also took 600,000 rupees in cash and two mobile phones belonging to his son Hamza, the trader alleges. He named Israr Ahmed, a resident of Gul Dara in Kacha Kachals, and Bakht Mohammad from Doranpur in Peshawar as the alleged leaders of the group.
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Concerns over the investigation
Fazal Subhan said that he called the police emergency service and contacted the Khan Raziq Shaheed police station. According to him, law enforcement officers arrived with a significant delay and inspected the shop only at around 8 p.m.
The brothers claim they handed over CCTV footage and the names of the alleged attackers to police, but no arrests were made. They also said that the name of one suspect, Habib, was not included in the crime registration report, despite their having identified him. Fazal Subhan accused Deputy Superintendent of Police Shahenshah Khan of trying to obstruct the investigation and shield the suspects.
The traders' claims could not be independently verified. Qasim Subhan also alleges that they were summoned to the police station, where they were asked to sit with people who, according to him, were not connected to the case, and were also asked to leave fingerprints on documents and were filmed in connection with the release of certain individuals.
