HYDERABAD: An eyewitness in a policeman murder case registered against Tahir Minhas the prime suspect in the Safoora Goth carnage case was gunned down outside his house in Mumtaz Colony on Monday.

Sub-Inspector Ishtiaq Awan, the additional SHO of the City police station of Tando Mohammad Khan, was attacked by two armed men as soon as he came out of his house and walked up to his car, parked in the garage. The Hyderabad SSP had written to his Tando Mohammad Khan counterpart in the last week of August that SI Awan was required to recognise the killer of SI Manoj Kumar, who was shot dead in Dec 2013, for which an identification parade was scheduled for Aug 31 this year. Minhas, arrested recently in Karachi for his alleged involvement in the Safoora Goth carnage, was to be identified but, according to police sources, SI Awan fearing for his life was reluctant to pick out Minhas considering the fact that SI Kumar was gunned down for being the investigation officer in the kidnapping and murder case of a young Hindu engineer, Greesh Kumar. The Kumar murder case was eventually transferred to a KarachiAnti-Terrorism Court-I (ATC) from the Hyderabad ATC.

Hyderabad SSP Irfan Baloch said that the assailants were waiting for him and as soon as he came out of his house, they came close to him and shot him in the garage. When the victim fell down, they pumped more bullets into his body from point-blank range and fled.

Some reports suggested that the attackers fled when the onlookers started throwing bricks at them while the suspects were emptying the magazine. Awan received five bullet wounds to his skull and abdomen.

SI Awan was the complainant in the murder case of SI Manoj Kumar, who was gunned down on Dec 23, 2010. The case (FIR 283/10) was registered at the Market police station against unknown killers.

The engineer was kidnapped on Aug 17, 2006 and his murder case (76/06) was also registered at the Market police station. The suspects who were charge-sheeted before the Hyderabad ATC in this case included Tahir Minhas, Javed Ansari, Mohammad Ali, Asghar Arain, Rashid Sheikh and Shahid Hussain Minhas. The victim`s remains were found in Kotri on Feb 7, 2007.

Minhas was acquitted in the case by the Hyderabad ATC in 2009 for want evidence.SI Awan did not go to Karachi to identify Minhas in the ATC-I, where a supplementary charge-sheet against the suspect was submitted on Sept 17, 2015. `Since he was reluctant to identify Minhas due to the fear factor, SI Awan submitted his statement with the investigation officer of Mr Kumar`s murder case,` a police source said. He (Awan) stated that since he recognised Minhas by his photographs that appeared in the media. He said he would record his further statement before the ATC, the source said.

It is mandatory under law for a lawfully valid identification parade under the Qanoon-iShahdat that the suspect to be identified is not to be shown/exposed to anyone before the identification parade and is to be produced before a magistrate with his face covered.

Meanwhile, the Hyderabad SSP said that an inquiry team headed by the headquarters SP had been formed to investigate the case. `We are looking into all aspects, including the fact that SI Awan was an eyewitness to the policeman`s murder and was required to identify the suspect as per the requirement, or whether there was any personal enmity involved,` he said.

Awan was laid to rest in the Hali Road graveyard. Makki Shah police said late in the evening that no FIR was registered so far.