SUKKUR: The home department on Monday assigned the judicial probe into an alleged fake encounter to Jacobabad District and Sessions Judge Abdul Ghafoor Kalhoro.

The matter pertained to the death of a youth, Saddam Hussain Lashari. In their report, the Jacobabad police had claimed that Lashari was killed in an encounter at Chand Shakh on May 29. However, victim`s sister Haseena Mughal Lashari contested the police claim and accused the police of having killed her brother in cold blood.

Accordingly, the home department constituted a judicial commission and directed the Jacobabad deputy commissioner and SSP to extend all possible cooperation to it.

Meanwhile, SHO of the A-Section police station Thull, Ghulam Nabi Bijarani, head constable Abdul Malik Khoso and SHO of the Abad police station Nabi Bakhsh Dahani have been placed under suspension till the judicial probe is completed.

Saddam Lashari`s death had triggered a series of protests in several upper Sindh towns after the bereaved family and relatives said a team of police picked him up and demanded Rs1 million bribe for his release.

The protests made IGP Ghulam Nabi Memon to ask Larkana DIG Mazhar Nawaz Shaikh to institute a probe. The DIG set up a two-member team comprising SSPs of Shikarpur and Larkana, Amjad Ali Shaikh and Mohammad Imran, respectively.

The team visited the bereaved family in Thull on Sunday and collected facts about the episode.

Eventually, the judicial commission was constituted on Monday. It has started work and is supposed to submit its finding to the home department within the next 30 days.