Islamabad Handcuffed Suspects Die in New Incident

Two handcuffed suspects in police custody died in Islamabad on Sunday after their accomplices opened fire during a recovery visit, police said. The two men were Afghan nationals, and they had been arrested in connection with an incident in which a 23-year-old woman was injured while resisting robbers in a park on 12 October.

The police public relations branch gave the account of the incident. It said the suspects, during interrogation, disclosed a hideout in Rawal Town and offered to help police recover looted items and arrest their accomplices. A police team then took the handcuffed suspects to a junkyard in Rawal Town.

What police say happened in Rawal Town

According to police, four armed persons were hiding in a wooded area near the junkyard. Those persons opened fire on the police team, police said, with the aim of freeing the suspects. The two handcuffed suspects sustained bullet injuries in the firing, while the police team remained unhurt because of precautionary measures, police said.

The attackers escaped after the firing, police said. The injured suspects were taken to hospital, where they died.

Police sources said the suspects had been arrested in connection with a case registered on 12 October at the Secretariat police station. The case was registered under sections 394, 375-A and 511 of the Pakistan Penal Code, following a complaint by the woman.

The 12 October incident behind the arrests

Three armed robbers intercepted the woman at Ankara Park while she was walking, according to the police account. The robbers held her at gunpoint, snatched her mobile phone and tried to drag her into a nearby wooded area.

The woman resisted, police said. A physical altercation followed, and the robbers assaulted her, causing multiple injuries, including wounds to her face, before fleeing. She survived the incident, and the case led to the arrests that preceded Sunday’s recovery visit.

No name or further identifying detail about the woman has been published, and this report does not add any. The focus of the police account is the suspects, the recovery visit and the firing that followed it.

The running totals for 2026

Sunday’s deaths increased the number of such deaths in Islamabad to seven in the current year, according to Dawn’s report. The number of such encounters in the capital has reached 62 this year, and 53 suspects were also injured in those encounters.

Those totals give the Rawal Town incident a wider context. A single recovery visit that ends in the death of two suspects in custody raises questions that go beyond one junkyard in Rawal Town. They concern how often suspects in custody are taken to locations named by them, what precautions are taken on such visits, and how often those visits end in firing.

The police account answers part of that picture. It says the team took precautionary measures, and it says the team remained unhurt. It also says the attackers escaped, which means no new arrests were reported from the firing itself.

What the account does not answer

The police account, as reported, does not name the four attackers, and it does not say whether any of them have since been identified or arrested. It does not say what items, if any, were recovered from the junkyard before the firing began.

It also does not give an independent account of the firing. The report rests on the police public relations branch and police sources. No other witness account was included in the report, and no statement from the families of the two men was reported.

Those gaps do not, on their own, contradict the police account. They do mean that key parts of the story, including how the attackers knew the team would visit the junkyard and how they escaped, remain unanswered in the public record so far.

Further reporting may fill those gaps. Until then, the confirmed facts are the deaths, the location, the link to the 12 October case, and the 2026 totals that now stand at seven deaths, 62 encounters and 53 injured suspects.

Who were the two suspects?

Police said they were Afghan nationals arrested in connection with the 12 October Ankara Park incident. Their names were not given in the report.

Where did the incident happen?

At a junkyard in Rawal Town, Islamabad, where police had taken the handcuffed suspects for the recovery of looted items and the arrest of accomplices.

How many such deaths have been recorded in Islamabad in 2026?

Seven, according to the report, out of 62 encounters in the capital this year, in which 53 suspects were also injured.