Karak rape case: Police officials suspended for negligence

Investigators fault security lapses for murder of victim’s brother.


Umer Farooq December 13, 2011

PESHAWAR:


Jahanzaib’s* murder on court premises while he was escorting his sister Sakina*, a rape victim, has led to the suspension of four police officials after the investigation team faulted security lapses for the attack.


His murder panicked the team constituted to investigate Sakina’s rape case and had led to apprehensions that investigation of the alleged rape would be delayed. It also triggered street protests by human rights activists, demanding the police arrest his attackers. His brother Zafran had accused Ibrahim Khan, Abdul Waheed and three other men for killing Jahanzaib, petitioner of their sister’s abduction and rape case.

When Jahanzaib’s murder was reported, the home department issued instructions to investigate the incident, especially, security lapses which led to his death on court premises. “The murder in broad daylight in such a high-profile case and that too, adjacent to the session court, reflects poorly on the professionalism of the local police. It seems appropriate security measures were not in place,” stated a letter written by the home department to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police chief, a copy of which was obtained by The Express Tribune. The home department has requested the police to not only expedite the investigation of the rape, but also to initiate a thorough and transparent probe into the security lapses, if any, especially when some of those charged of rape were police officials and take appropriate necessary action.

In his reply the deputy inspector general (DIG) of police Kohat, said orders were issued to constitute teams for investigating Jahanzaib’s murder in a high-profile meeting. DIG Kohat accepted the local police was guilty of security lapses in the letter. SHO Yaqoob Shaheed Rehman was suspended and a departmental inquiry has been initiated against him. Three police officials posted in Takht-e-Nusrati were also suspended and charge-sheeted by district police officer Karak as they failed to assist the local police in preventing the murder of a member of Sakina’s family, according to the DIG’s reply. According to an FIR, five assailants had shot Jahanzaib on court premises in Karak district while he was accompanying his sister for a court hearing. Sakina had accused 13 persons, including three police officials, of raping her in 2010.

*Names have been changed to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2011.

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