Attack on Express News: Top judge wants probe to be speeded up

SHC chief justice takes notice of slaying of Express News staff.

KARACHI:

Sindh High Court Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar has ordered the Sindh police chief to speed up an investigation into last week’s attack on the stationary Express News van that left three employees dead. The police chief was asked to submit a report ‘at the earliest’.

The incident took place on January 17 in the city’s North Nazimabad neighbourhood and sparked a wave of protests nationwide by the journalists. The following day, the SHC Registrar Faheem Siddiqui had put up a note, containing newspaper clippings, regarding the killing of the Express News workers and JUI-S leader Mufti Usman Yar Khan in the city on the same day.

CJ Baqar had requested a report from the Sindh IGP..

IG’s report

The IG said two special teams have been constituted by Additional IG Karachi Rangers under the chairmanship of CIA DIG and comprising senior officers for conducting an investigation into the killings. “The teams are conducting the required investigation into both cases and resolve to expose the perpetrators to face criminal justice for such horrendous crime,” the report said. “After the conclusion of the investigation in both cases a detailed report will be furnished.”

Evidence

The police chief said that 17 empties of the 9mm pistol and two pellets recovered from the crime scene have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for analysis, and a report is awaited. “We are making all efforts to apprehend the perpetrators through spy information and the intelligence agencies and further details will be communicated in due time,” the report concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2014.