Quetta Customs Deputy Collector Dr Abdul Quddus Sheikh, who was severely beaten up by suspected smugglers earlier this week, passed away on Tuesday morning at a hospital in Karachi. Dr Sheikh was attacked at Gahi Khan Chowk when he was returning home after seizing smuggled goods during an operation in the Kolpur area of Quetta.According to customs officials, unidentified men had stopped his car at gunpoint, beat him up severely and fled. They said that action against the attackers had been initiated after registration of an FIR, as they had challenged the writ of the state.
Police have arrested three individuals in connection with the incident, a private news channel reported.
A statement issued by the Customs Department on the demise of the official said, “This was not the first attack on customs officials engaged in anti-smuggling operations […] in the last three years, 10 officers/officials have lost their lives and dozens injured.”
It said, “Besides the fatalities, there have been notable instances of staff being kidnapped, especially in Balochistan and KP provinces, to browbeat the Customs Department into submission.”
Following the attack, the deputy commissioner of Islamabad had taken to Twitter to share that Dr Sheikh was in critical condition after being severely beaten by a gang of smugglers on Saryab Road. He added that the official was in a coma with ruptured lungs and a broken jaw.
