SHC orders East DIG to personally supervise investigation into four person's 'killings'

According to police report, Uzair Baloch has confessed to their killings

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed on Monday the East DIG to personally supervise the investigation into the alleged killing of four persons, including a jail official, after they were kidnapped by the Lyari gang-war kingpin, Uzair Jan Baloch.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar, told the East Zone police chief to submit a progress report on the recovery and verification of the bodies of the alleged missing persons by April 24.

Earlier, the judges came down hard on the East DIG for not personally investigating the matter despite the issuance of clear directives to him at the last hearing to verify the bodies of the four persons allegedly missing since August 2010.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by a woman, Phullan Khatoon, against the disappearance of her son, Ghazi Khan, and his three friends ­- Mohammad Ameen, Sher Afzal Khan and Shahzad Khan. The petitioner claimed that the four friends had been picked up by the Rangers on August 1, 2010.

She alleged that three Rangers officials, Colonel Suleman, Sher Afsar and Riaz Taman, were involved in the kidnapping. She accused Afsar of even collecting a bribe of Rs100,000 from her for arranging a meeting with the detainees.



During Monday's proceedings, an East investigation SSP filed a report regarding the police's efforts for the verification of the four missing persons' deaths.

The report stated that a man, Muhammad Yousaf, who was the cousin of one of the missing men, Ameen, had also registered a case for his missing cousin. According to the report, Rangers officials Afsar and Taman contacted Yousaf and offered to get his cousin recovered against Rs1 million. Later the two paramilitary force's officials were arrested during a raid conducted by Colonel Suleman.

According to the report, after the arrests of Afsar and Taman, Section 365-A (kidnapping for ransom) of the Pakistan Penal Code was added to the case. Anti-Violent Crime Cell DSP Javed Tanoli investigated the case and filed a charge sheet before an anti-terrorism court.

 

Uzair Baloch's revelations

The case took a U-turn when, after his arrest, Lyari gang-war kingpin Uzair revealed during interrogation that he and other gangsters had killed the four missing men.

In a statement recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Uzair admitted that he had himself killed Ameen to avenge a past incident while the other three men had been tortured and killed by his accomplices Sarwar Baloch, Akbar Baloch and Sikandar.



According to Uzair's statement, he and Ameen, who was a hawaldar, had exchanged harsh words when he had earlier been incarcerated at Central Jail, Karachi. To take revenge from Ameen, Baloch lured him to Dhobi Ghat through a drug peddler, Shair Afzal Niazi, and kidnapped him along with his three friends. The four men were later killed by Uzair and his accomplices.

According to Uzair, Sarwar threw the bodies at a location in the vicinity of the Mewa Shah Graveyard. Uzair claimed that he did not know the precise location where the bodies had been dumped.

According to the report, all three accomplices of Uzair involved in the four men's murders had been killed during encounters with the police. The report stated that during investigations, three caretakers of the Mewa Shah Graveyard were also interrogated who said they had no knowledge of the bodies.

The report concluded that the bodies of the four missing persons, whom Uzair had confessed to have killed, could not be verified as his accomplices who knew the place where the bodies were dumped had been killed in encounters.

"There is no eyewitness or circumstantial evidence to ascertain the killing of the four persons by Uzair Jan and his accomplices except his confessional statement," the report stated, adding that "therefore, at this stage, the death of above mentioned four persons could not be verified."