PNS Mehran attack: Sindh constitutes joint interrogation team

Investigators to submit report to Sindh CM in 15 days.

The Sindh government has constituted a joint interrogation team to probe into the PNS Mehran base attack, which marks it first week today (Monday).

The team will include members from police, rangers and Pakistan Navy as well as intelligence agencies, including the Inter-Services Intelligence, the Intelligence Bureau, Military Intelligence and the Federal Investigation Agency. The committee has been formed following orders from the interior ministry and, within 15 days, submit a report to Sindh police chief before presenting its findings to Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.

Sindh home department officials said that eight members of the team will record the statements of all navy and air force officials who were present at the PAF and PNS Mehran bases at the time of attack.

“The team can conduct raids with the help of police and law enforcement agencies to apprehend suspects. It can also interrogate foreigners who witnessed the attack,” sources said.

Adviser to the provincial home department Sharfuddin Memon told The Express Tribune that initial reports had been submitted by agencies already investigating the attack and this team will try to determine the losses incurred in the attack. Memon said the team’s preliminary role will be to gather details of people posted at the bases. “We have devised a comprehensive strategy to look into the matter but it cannot be shared at this time,” he said.

He said that officials of the Sindh police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) and Special Investigation Unit (SIU) are also part of the team.

Official sources said the team will acquire telephone records of the officials witness to the attack and examine their incoming and outgoing calls for at least one month.

CID and SIU officials have been tasked to interrogate militants in various jails in the province. Sources said some raids have been conducted on information provided by militants under arrest.

Sources said that police investigators had also forwarded a report to the interior ministry according to which the attack was conducted by four terrorists, who had information that foreigners were inside the base. The report said that navy personnel had informed the police soon after the attack and officials from District East rushed to the spot. The report confirms that two P-3C Orion aircraft had been damaged while one was partially affected. It also confirms that ten navy and rangers personnel were killed while 15 were injured and four terrorists were killed on the spot.

According to the report, four sub-machine guns, two rocket launchers, seven RPG rockets, 12 hand-grenades, one walkie-talkie set, two suicide jackets and two ladders were found from the spot.

Suspect released

Meanwhile, a suspect taken into custody in Faisalabad has been released by law enforcement agencies after interrogation.

Qari Qaisar, 30, runs a religious seminary in a village in Satiana, about 40 kilometres from Faisalabad. A joint police and intelligence team took him into custody two days ago and shifted him to an undisclosed place for interrogation. Sources said that Qari Qaisar, who hails from Dera Ghazi Khan, was arrested as he had received a suspect phone call on the day and time of attack.

On Sunday, May 29, Qari Qaisar reached his madressah in Satiana and told residents and students that he was taken to an undeclared location for interrogation and was released after investigators found him “innocent”.

He said that he was handed Rs300 and thrown in a deserted place near Lahore from where he travelled to Faisalabad by bus.
Additional reporting by Shamsul Islam in Faisalabad

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2011.