Perween Rahman murder case: Justice elusive as OPP members threatened

Project director leaves Karachi over security concerns

KARACHI: It’s been more than two years since Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) director Perween Rahman was shot dead in cold blood in the Orangi neighbourhood, but instead of getting nearer to their goal of attaining justice for Perween, activists are being threatened to stop pursuing the case.

Since July 2013, when a petition was filed in the Supreme Court to get justice for the renowned social activist, who had fallen victim to an assassin near her office on March 13, 2013, the petitioners have indicated numerous instances of intimidation aimed at thwarting their efforts and to force them to withdraw the petition.

According to Perween’s sister – author, teacher and activist Aquila Ismail – the attack on OPP-Research & Training Institute (RTI) Joint-Director Salim Alimuddin on January 28, 2014 was in response to the apex court’s decision to accept the petition for hearing a few days earlier.



After the attack, the OPP-RTI teams were moved to the city, which caused the NGO’s ongoing work in and around Orangi to slow down, and in many cases, to stop altogether.

Perween’s sister, who has been a member of the OPP board for 15 years, said that when the SC-mandated judicial commission began working, members of the OPP team felt the level of intimidation increase because of the presence of the investigation officer (IO) and other police officials in the courtroom “apparently to see who among us were present”.

She said the IO had asked the OPP’s Anwar Rashid to compromise with the police and withdraw the case, to which the police were told to approach the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, since it is one of the petitioners. “Of course, this was to deflect the pressure on us.”

“We have been told that there was pressure on the judge conducting the inquiry, but he persevered,” she added.

She said the judicial commission’s report disproved the police claim that Perween’s killer was a man named Qari Bilal, a Taliban commander’s aide who was killed in a shoot-out on the day of Perween’s funeral.

The activists fighting for getting justice for the slain OPP director believe that the law enforcers are trying to cover up the whole incident to protect the actual people responsible for the murder.

The judicial commission also recommended broadening the scope of the investigation to take it beyond Orangi and Manghopir.

The top court formed a joint investigation team (JIT) following its disappointment in the reports submitted by the Sindh police. The OPP board member said the JIT met with her and other members last June. “During the meetings we felt that the police were reluctant to get into the issue of land and wanted to confine its investigation to Orangi and Manghopir.”

However, the JIT was subsequently ordered by the apex court to look into land records. The court had allowed the police to submit their report in a sealed envelope. “But the SC returned their report and told them that they wanted arrests and interrogation reports, not promises.” Earlier this year, prime suspect Ahmed Khan alias Pappu Kashmiri was arrested from Mansehra. He was produced before an anti-terrorism court and remanded to police. “However, there has been no progress since then.”

She said Kashmiri had provided the investigators with two more names, one of whom was Rahim Swati, who “used to live five houses down the OPP office”. “Since the start of this month, we feel that the level of threats and intimidation to the OPP director and the NGO itself have increased manifold.”

She said thrice a subedar had advised the director against coming to work. “Earlier this week, the same subedar had told the director to leave Karachi. He was also told that ‘they know about his home in Surjani’.” The director was quite shaken by this and then left the city fearing for his security, she added.

The OPP team fears that if the level of intimidation were to persist, then the NGO could suffer irreparable damage. “This is what they are aiming for. It also makes us believe that perhaps the investigation is on the right track,” added Aquila.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2015.