Kharotabad incident : Judicial inquiry into Chechens’ killing ordered

Postmortem report reveals one of the five Chechens shot dead was pregnant.

QUETTA:

In a fresh development in the Kharotabad shooting incident, the chief minister of Balochistan has ordered a judicial inquiry into the killing of five Chechen nationals, including three women.

Police officials had earlier claimed to have killed five “terrorists” on Tuesday who were believed to be wearing suicide jackets,  carrying weapons and about to attack a check post in Quetta.

Before the judicial probe, Chief Minister Aslam Raisani had constituted a committee under the supervision of Chief Secretary Balochistan Mir Ahmed Bakhsh Lehri to investigate the incident and submit a report within 10 hours.  Lehri recommended a judicial probe covering all the federal and provincial employees who were involved in the incident.

As a result, Chief Minister Raisani formed a judicial tribunal comprising judges of theBalochistan High Court under the Balochistan Tribunals Inquiry Ordinance 1969. Justice Mohammad Hashim Kakar will head this commission.

The decision to hold a judicial inquiry was hailed by human rights groups as a superior judiciary will be more competent to probe all aspects of the unformtunate incident.

Home Secretary Zafar Baloch said the government is waiting for a completion of judicial inquiry report and will take action against anyone found guilty.

Meanwhile, according to an autopsy report the victims died of bullet wounds, but also bore multiple marks of splinter wounds.

The postmortem report was contradictory to the Quetta police’s claim that all five foreigners had died of an explosion.

Police Surgeon Dr Baqar Shah, who conducted the postmortem, said that one of the deceased women was in her seventh month of pregnancy.

“The body of a 25 to 30-year-old pregnant woman bore multiple marks of wounds but we have recovered four fired bullets which caused her instant death,” he added.

He said there were no splinter wounds on her body.  However, he added, the other four bore multiple marks of splinter wounds.

Shah said that two men received splinter wounds on their upper torso as well as two bullet wounds.  Five bullets wounds were found on the second woman as well as burn injuries on her legs. The third woman, who is stated to be 26-year-old, received eight bullets, the Medico-Legal officer told reporters.

Shah said the autopsy report will be submitted to the Balochistan Government if it officially asks for it.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2011.