LAHORE: Rubbishing the PTI claims that Ali Bilal was killed in police custody, Punjab Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi said that PTI worker Ali Bilal aka Zille Shah died in a road accident in Lahore.
He was addressing a press conference along with Punjab Police chief Usman Anwar in Lahore to share the circumstances in which the PTI worker died on Wednesday following a standoff between the party’s workers and police.
Not long after the PTI’s rally to launch its election campaign was called off following clashes between the party’s workers and the police, graphic images of Ali’s body began circulating on social media.
The provincial government had imposed Section 144 in the city that day.
Following his death, “Zille Shah”, “Ali Bilal” and “Black Vigo” began trending on Twitter and other social media platforms, while horrid details of Bilal’s death began surfacing.
A CCTV footage of a private 4X4 vehicle also emerged in which two men — in plain clothes — were seen dropping the slain worker at a hospital in Lahore where he was pronounced dead.
According to the post-mortem report, the victim had 26 marks of torture on his body.
Addressing the presser, flanked by the CM, IG Punjab said that all these people — who brought Ali to the hospital in a 4×4 vehicle — have been arrested and will be presented before a court.
He informed that the owner of the vehicle, in which the deceased worker was brought to the hospital, is Raja Shakeel and a member of PTI’s central Punjab wing.
He added that Shakeel informed PTI Punjab leader Yasmeen Rashid that a person has been hit by a vehicle.
Shakeel, according to the IG Usman Anwar, left for Zaman Park with Rashid leaving behind the car’s driver Jahanzaib, one of the two people arrested by the police.
The video circulating on social media is fake, he claimed.
Police have found evidence against claims made by PTI with the hard work of its technical team. “The conspiracy has failed,” the police chief said.
The IG said that the deceased PTI worker’s father Liaquat Ali also appealed for an investigation into his son’s death.
“Action will be taken if evidence of police torture is found,” the IG assured.
Sharing details of the vehicle involved in the incident, the provincial police chief said: “A video of a black vehicle arriving at the Services Hospital was reported. The vehicle has been recovered with the help of 31 CCTV cameras and GPS from the Waris Shah road.”
The head of the provincial police department said that the worker’s body was brought to the Services Hospital at 6:52 am.
He added that there was no conspiracy to kill the PTI worker. “The Punjab Police will share the investigation with [Ali’s] father. We promise to present all the evidence to Zille Shah’s father.”
He also asserted that all the proof will be presented before the court.
