Taseer murder case: Formal charges against Qadri on Feb 14

Police submit statements of six Elite Force men to anti-terrorism court.


Obaid Abbasi February 05, 2011
Taseer murder case: Formal charges against Qadri on Feb 14

RAWALPINDI: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) is likely to formally charge sheet Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the self-confessed assassin of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, on February 14.

During the hearing on Friday at Adiala Jail, the station house officer (SHO) Kohsar police station submitted the copies of statements of six Elite Force men who were on duty with Qadri on January 4.

Judge ATC-II Raja Ikhlaq Ahmed put this matter off till February 14, when Qadri will be formally charge sheeted. On February 1, the court had deferred the indictment of Qadri because the SHO did not submit copies of six police officials’ statements to the court.

Earlier, police submitted interim challan in the court, since the two clerics suspected of provoking Qadri, wanted by the police under Sec-109, were granted bail by the ATC. However on February 1, the court acquitted Mufti Qari Hanif and Syed Imtiaz Kazmi because police failed to come up with any evidence of their involvement in Taseer’s murder.

Earlier police had booked Mufti Qari Hanif and Imtiaz Kazmi under section 109 “for provoking Qadri to kill Salmaan Taseer”. However after their acquittal by the court the Section 109 will be dropped and the challan will be rendered complete.

Police said they have to submit a comprehensive inquiry report to the court before next date of hearing, and hoped that the suspect will be formally charge sheeted on the next date of hearing.

Qadri, in his confessional statement, had said that he decided to kill the governor for criticising the blasphemy laws after hearing speeches of the two prayer leaders in a mosque in Rawalpindi’s Muslim Town on December 31 last year.

Salmaan Taseer was assassinated on January 4.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5th, 2011.

COMMENTS (11)

Basharit | 13 years ago | Reply @talat: My imaan tells me salman tasser became a non muslim but that in itself does not mean he should be killed. (during the khilafat non Muslims lived in peace and harmony). The statement tasser made was totally unacceptable! Nothing wrong with the law whatsoever. We can of course discuss the implementation of the law but surely out of the millions of cases in Pakistan under numerous laws is this the only one we should discuss! This is no ordinary law, it was passed in parliament and also passed in the shariah court. Before the law came to parliament all the awliah ikram were consulted and they made their judgements on the Quran and Sunnah it was on their recommendations that parliament latter passed the law. With regards to suicide bombings in a mosque, church or any other place they are haram! (this is a debate in itself). What alarms and surprises me the most is if a criminal act is committed against us we want the full force of the law to be applied. But when someone attacks our deen our response is leave it to Allah. Finally you mention Alama Iqbal,. Please research the case of Ghazi Ilm a deen Shaheed who qauid e azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah represented in court and ilmuddin's father requested Allama Muhammad Iqbal to lead the funeral prayer and this shivered Dr. Allama Iqbal who replied that I am a sinful person not competent to do this job to lead the funeral of such a great warrior.
Basharit | 13 years ago | Reply @talat: ?
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