IHC summons top cop in drone victims case

Police have been side-stepping case against former CIA men

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) summoned on Friday the Inspector-General of Police and the SHO of the Secretariat police station for not complying with court orders in the criminal case against the former CIA station chief filed by a victim of a 2009 US drone attack in North Waziristan.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui presided over the hearing.

On Friday, the Advocate-General of Islamabad Mian Abdul Rauf presented the federal government’s stance, challenging the cancellation and transfer of the FIR from the federal capital to FATA.



The petition was filed in 2015 by Kareem Khan, a resident of Mirali in the North Waziristan Agency who lost his son, Zahinullah, and brother, Asif Iqbal, a primary schoolteacher in a US drone strike on December 31, 2009.

Criticising the Islamabad police and the federal government, the judge said that they had failed to provide justice to victims of the attack, adding that IG police Islamabad, Sultan Azam Taimoori, should take decisive steps by the next hearing scheduled to be held on January 15, 2018.

Kareem Khan’s counsel, Mirza Shahazad Akbar, cited the written statement submitted by SHO Secretariat Police, Nawaz Bhatti, in which he alleged that the FIR had been registered and cancelled on IHC’s order but there was no such order.

The court told SHO Nawaz Bhatti to appear in person on the next hearing, reminding him that his alleged testimony amounted to contempt of court which had serious consequences.

For nearly 5 years, the Islamabad police had been avoiding proceedings against CIA officials involved in this and hundreds of other killings in US drone strikes inside Pakistan.

On April 7, 2015, the IHC bench ordered the IG Islamabad to register a criminal case against the former CIA station chief in Islamabad, Jonathan Banks, and CIA’s legal counsel John A Rizzo, charging them of murder, conspiracy, waging war against Pakistan and terrorism.



The secretariat police station had registered the FIR on the court orders, but later the same had been transferred to the FATA secretariat, pointing out that the incident had not occurred inside their jurisdiction.

On Friday, Justice Siddiqui asserted that the case should have been investigated in Islamabad and its transfer had frustrated court orders.

Kareem Khan started his legal struggle in 2010 and has ever since been pursuing the criminal case.

Even now, as his efforts entered eighth year, Kareem Khan is hopeful of securing justice for his murdered brother and son.