Lahore Gang War: Ameer Balaj Tipu killed in a marriage ceremony

On January 20, 2010, a stampede broke out after firing in the parking lot of Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport.

The citizens of Lahore worried about the successive incidents of terrorism felt that Lahore Airport might be the target of the terrorists that time.

But after some time it was found that this was not a terrorist act but a gang war in Lahore and the name of the victim was “Arif Ameer alias Tipu Truckanwala”.

Injured Tipu Turkanwala was rushed to Mayo Hospital in Lahore where he succumbed to his injuries two days later.

Tipu Truckanwala’s father Billa Truckanwala was a victim of the same gang war in 1994 and now almost 32 years after the incident, Billa Truckanwala’s grandson Ameer Balaj Tipu has also become a target of enmity.

On Sunday night, Ameer Balaj Tipu, who had come to attend a wedding ceremony in a private housing society in Lahore, was shot dead by an assailant (Zafar, an employee of Gogi Butt). Ameer Balaj’s gunmen killed the shooter on the spot.

A case of the incident has been registered against Gogi Butt and Tefi Butt, who are considered enemies of the Turkanwala family.

Lahore has a long history of gang wars and enmity, but in recent times there has been a decline in the number of enmity killings.

Now after this incident, once again there are threats of resumption of ongoing gang war in Lahore due to family rivalry that has been going on for three generations.

Who was the enimy of Ameer Balaj Tipu?

Many groups have faced each other due to family enmity in the city of Lahore, but the enmity between the family of Billa Tarkanwala, a resident of Shah Alam Market in Lahore, and Gogi Butt and Tefi Butt of Gawalmandi has spanned several decades.

Lahore’s senior crime reporter Mian Rauf says that the enmity between Billa Tarkanwala and the Gogi Butt family began in 1993 with a minor verbal spat and a slapping incident.

In 1993, Tipu Truckanwala started meeting Hanif alias Hanifa and Shafiq alias Baba. Both these brothers were among the top ten absconders of their time.

According to him, these people were sitting in an office in Lakshmi Chowk, where Tipu truck driver slapped the friend of the two brothers, an absconder named Madaba Shah.

According to Mian Rauf, Shafiq alias Baba cooled the matter on the spot and asked the tipu trucker to apologize for him. Shafiq and Hanif had also been Billa Truckanwala’s bodyguards at some point, so Billa Truckanwala said that Tipu would not apologise.

According to him, Shafiq and Hanif decided to kill Billa after the enmity that arose over this matter, after which they carried out their plan in 1994.

According to Mian Rauf, Mubarak Shah was accused of killing Billa truckan wala but Tipu truckanwala blamed Gogi Butt and Tefi Butt.

The Truckan family has a goods transport business spread across Pakistan, while Gogi and Tefi Butt own several properties in Gawalmandi.

Mian Rauf says that the enmity of the parties had reached such a level that both of them moved their children abroad and Ameer Balaj Tipu returned to Pakistan after the death of his father in 2010.

Senior crime reporter Jameel Chishti says Billa Truckanwala had connections with police officers and politicians.

According to him, Billa was also keeping lions at his Dera near Shah Alam Market and had also built an akhara there.

When someone is powerful in an area, some elements also arise that challenge such persons.

According to him, the names of other gangsters including Bhola Saniyara, Humayun Gujjar, Naji Butt have been coming up in the gang war of Lahore, but the name of the truckanwala family has been coming up on different occasions.

Jameel Chishti says that similarly, Baghbanpura area has a history of enmity between Majha Sikh and Sheikh Asghar in which dozens of people were killed.

Jameel Chishti says that more than 100 people have been killed so far in the gang war of this group.

According to him, Ameer Balaj Tipu tried to end this generational enmity on his own, but he could not succeed.

The role of the police in Lahore Gang war

Jameel Chishti says that the police made a lot of money in this fight. According to him, many police officers have been protecting these gangsters.

Jameel Chishti says that Inspector Naveed Saeed of Lahore Police was also involved in this gang war who had links with the underworld.

According to him, Inspector Naveed Saeed was an inspector, but his protocol was like that of IG Police. Later he himself was killed during that gang war.

Former IG Punjab Police Shaukat Javed says that there are misunderstandings regarding the police in these cases.

According to him, the police have been taking action against such elements, but they become powerful again after the passage of time.

Shaukat Javed said that he has been posted in Lahore and he has seen this gang war closely.

According to him, these people have been involved in land occupation and business on interest. However, they continue to do their work by dodging the law.

The former IG Punjab further said that there have been several attempts to get hold of these groups in the past.

Shaukat Javed says that the Governor of West Pakistan had promulgated the Goonda Ordinance, while there have been attempts to abolish it even during the tenure of the former Governor and Chief Minister of Punjab, Ghulam Mustafa Khar.