Gilgit-Baltistan: Court action on target killings

Court directs chief secretary, IG police and secretary home to submite report to the court.

GILGIT: The Supreme Appellate Court (SAC) Gilgit-Baltistan took suo motu action on Thursday against the rising incidents of target killings in Gilgit.

An official said that the court directed the chief secretary, IG police and secretary home to submit report to the court in this respect by March 14. “The proceedings of the case would start from March 15,” said the official.

Following the murder of senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Mir Nawaz Khan, lawyers in Gilgit had passed a resolution urging SAC Chief Justice Nawaz Abbasi to take action against the assassination. The Supreme Appellate Court Bar lawyers had also expressed distrust in police investigations into the case, fearing that the fate of this case too would be similar to other unresolved ones.

Mir Nawaz Khan, a lawyer by profession, was assassinated last month by armed men outside his house in Gilgit, triggering the revival of sectarian skirmishes which left five people injured in the ensuing days.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2011.