SC wraps up DI Khan sectarian violence suo motu case

Apex court directs authorities to submit bi-monthly progress report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday provisionally wrapped up a suo motu case pertaining to targetted sectarian attacks in Dera Ismail Khan after directing authorities to continue action against 'miscreants'.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, further instructed law enforcement authorities to submit a bi-monthly report to the apex court and also bring to the court's attention any serious sectarian incident in DI Khan.

The decision came after DI Khan’s district police officer briefed the bench on measures taken to curb sectarian violence. The senior police official said police had conducted joint operations with intelligence agencies in at least three tehsils of the district.

"A decrease has been witnessed in target killings. No case was reported in the last two months,” he added.

The chief justice questioned why improvement was only witnessed after the apex court took suo motu notice. “Why did the authorities not take action before?” he asked.



Justice Nisar had taken the suo motu notice on the recommendation of an SC judge from the DI Khan.

In earlier hearings, the DPO had revealed that the history of sectarian violence in the area dated back to 1985. Shocked by the revelations, the top judge had expressed serious concern over the ongoing sectarian targeted killings and sought a reply from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government over the violence and asked how this issue could be resolved.