FAISALABAD: A murder case has been registered against four policemen, including the People`s Colony station house officer (SHO), on charges of killing a schoolboy and injuring another on Monday on Susan Road.

The SHO was taken into custody on Monday night on the direction of City Police Officer Afzaal Kausar. Police in turn filed a robbery case against the two boys and claimed that both were robbers and had opened fire on police that was retaliated.

The policemen had gunned down Farhan and injured his friend Fahad on Susan Road when they were taking selfies with a toy pistol to post them on Facebook. The case was registered against SHO Faryad Cheema and his three unidentified subordinates on the complaint of Muhammad Ali, an uncle of the injured Fahad.

Ali submitted in the application that Fahad and his friends Farhan, Shehroz, Faheem and Hasan Mahmood had gone to a nearby park to take some pictures. When the boys did not return after some time, he went to the park with two other people.

He claimed a vehicle with four armed men in plainclothes reached the park and opened ñre on the boys. One of the gunmen was identified as SHO Cheema, he claimed.

The applicant said Cheema had opened fire with a Kalashnikov and a bullet hit Farhan after which he fell on the ground. The three other men also started firing in which Fahad sustained a bullet injury.

`Those men bundled Farhan into a vehicle infront of us and sped away, Ali said, adding Fahad was taken to the DHQ Hospital where the SHO was already present. He said the SHO fled from there upon seeing them. He further claimed a critically injured Farhan remained unattended at the hospital emergency ward, while they begged doctors to treat him. But he could not survive and died at midnight.

To cover up, the SHO had filed a first information report (FIR) against the boys under sections 186, 324, 353 for possession of an illegal weapon. He claimed in the FIR that he was on routine patrol along with constables Aurangzeb, Arif and Imran when a security guard Naseer informed him that two masked motorcyclists were looting people at gunpoint near Sabina Park, Officers Colony.

After reaching the spot, the SHO claimed, he saw the two boys looting and asked them to surrender.

The boys opened ñre on police, he further claimed.

He added that one of the boys received a bullet from his fellow who fled from the scene. Police managed to capture the injured boy and recovered his pistol along with three live bullets from his possession. No policeman sustained even a minor injury in the `encounter`, claimed the SHO in the FIR.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Bilal Umer has been appointed inquiry officer to probe the issue.

Sources said a security guard who had called police to tell them the boys were looting people had also been taken into custody for investigation.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has sought a report on the killing from the inspector general.