Inquiry officer suggests that the officials be prosecuted for killing a man in 2008. PHOTO: AFP
In the inquiry report released on Monday, judicial magistrate Najeebullah Khan suggested that a murder case be lodged against the officials.
The inquiry into the killing of one Mohsin Mushtaq had started in 2012. It was entrusted to several judges before it was handed over to Khan.
The FIR registered with Shahdara police station following the killing in 2008 had stated that Mushtaq was killed in a shootout with Inspector Zulifqar Ali (investigation cell in charge) and other members of a raiding team including SI Muhammad Yaqoob, ASI Muhammad Akbar, Constables Ali Raza, Nasir Mehmood, Sana Ullah, Naseem Abbas and driver Zulfiqar Ali. It said that the shootout that lasted for 20 to 25 minutes had started when Mushtaq and his accomplice opened fire at the police team. The team had tried to arrest the two men minutes after they freed a captive, identified only as Bilal, after receiving a ransom from his relatives at a site on Bund Road, it added.
The FIR said that Mushtaq’s accomplice had managed to escape from the scene. It said the police team had recovered a pistol and an empty magazine from the deceased. It said that an FIR had been registered in the kidnapping matter on the complaint of one Tanveer Ahmed.
However, Mushtaq’s mother had said that Zulfiqar Ali and other officials had illegally detained her and Mushtaq at Shahdara police station at the behest of one Umar Butt, identified as a member of a rival family. She said the police had then shifted his son to some unidentified location as she spent another four days at a lockup at Shahdara police station where they subjected her to torture. She said she had later been sent to a judicial lockup on the directive of an anti-terrorism court. There, she said, she was informed that her son had been killed in an encounter.
Following her release from the jail, she said, she had made several efforts to get an FIR registered against the suspected officials but in vain till the commencement of the inquiry.
Meanwhile, there were contradictions in the officials’ accounts of events recorded before the judge. Some officials held that the deceased had received Rs500,000 ransom from the complainant in the kidnapping case ahead of the release of the captive. Others said that the ransom money was paid at the time of the release.
Some police officials also contradicted Inspector Zulifqar Ali’s statement that there had been no contact between him and the complainant. During cross examination, they told the judge that the inspector had been in contact with the complainant before the incident.
In the inquiry report released on Monday, the judge referred to the claim that a pistol and an empty magazine were recovered from the deceased and questioned how it was possible for him to continue firing for so long with a single magazine. He also questioned how one of the two men had managed to escape from the scene if they were both surrounded by the police team.
Referring to the post mortem examination report, the judge noted that all but one of the injuries were caused by gunshots. The post mortem report had stated that there were fractures and swelling in the legs of the deceased. It had said eight bullets were found in one of the wounds on the body.
The judge noted: “The story narrated by the police seems illogical, ironical and paradoxical. The officials’ statements are contradictory.
He said Mushtaq’s death appeared to be an extra-judicial killing and the officials be prosecuted for murder.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2016.
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