• ‘Obaid was taken to Banr Police Station and shot. It took only five minutes’

• DPO forms investigation team to probe the killing

Swat’s Banr police has arrested three of its men – out of the total five accused – in the murder of a college student only after the victim’s family and residents protested outside the police station where they claim the victim was shot at point-blank.

“When my nephew was arrested, I also went to the police station in Banr with him. When we arrived, the policemen first tortured Obaid. When I complained the policemen took him to a room. Shots were fired amidst this,” Faridoon Khan, the maternal uncle of the victim, told Aaj News on Tuesday.

Family members say Obaid was shot and wounded at the police station and then moved to the Saidu Sharif Hospital by the family where he succumbed to his wounds. “This entire episode inside the police station happened in five minutes,” said Faridoon Khan.

He was laid to rest were offered in the Mingora graveyard.

Obaid was a BS student at Jehanzeb College, Saidu Sharif, Swat.

Residents have only good things to say about the victim and his family. They described him as “a good” young man, belonging to an educated family.

Obaid’s uncle Faridoon has also served as a councillor in the area.

Drug patrol and ‘special team’

The five policemen who have been accused of killing Obaid had arrived in the area with DPO Shafiullah from Karak as part of a “special team”, according to one of the narrative surrounding Obaid’s death.

The death is also being linked to a drug patrol in the area.

Like other places, Banr has a district security branch (DSB) whose primary job is to counter drug peddlers. Policemen are part of DSB. They patrol the area in plain clothes.

The first information report (FIR) says that Obaid was in his Hujra (a designated room for guests) in Latifabad at 7:15 and he informed his uncle that he had an argument with four to five policemen. Reacting to this, both of them reached the Banr chowk, around 10 minutes’ distance from their house, where the said policemen were standing in plain clothes.

The policemen grabbed Obaid and took him with his uncle to the police station when a police patrol van arrived, it claimed, adding that both of them were taken to different rooms. Amidst this, SHO Banr Police Station arrived in and asked the victim’s uncle about the reason for the visit.

“I was telling the SHO about the development when we hear gunshots from the room where Obaid was taken. I and SHO ran there and saw that Obaid’s was lying in a pool of blood on the floor. There was a pistol in the room,” the FIR reads.

Faridoon, claimed that he can identify the suspects.

The FIR was registered under sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), and 302 (Punishment of qatl-i-amd) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Investigation team

An eight-member investigation team was formed on Tuesday by Regional Police Officer Sajjad Khan to “unearth” the facts behind the incident.

“Justice will be served to the family members,” said Sajjad.

The investigation team is headed by SSP Shah Hassan Khan and comprises SP Swat Rahim Hussain Khan, SP Special Branch Malakand Pir Zar Badshah, DSP Investigation Swat Afsar Zaman, SDPO Timergara Lower Dir Farooq Jan, SI Muhammad Anwar (investigation officer), SI Imtiaz Khan, and ASI Gohar.

Banr is a city of Mingora, which is a central part of Swat. It is famous for its contribution to the field of arts.

Around six months ago, a person arrested on drug charges at the Banr police station died by suicide.