Kharotabad probe: SP fails to recognise accused personnel

He said that though he was present at the scene of the incident, he cannot recognise the police or FC personnel.

QUETTA: During the Kharotabad inquiry on Thursday a police officer, who was present when five Chechens were killed on May 17, says he cannot recognise the officials who had opened fire.

Superintendent of Police (SP), Amanullah Kakar told the inquiry tribunal, probing the Kharotabad incident, that though he was present at the scene of the incident, he cannot recognise the police or FC personnel who fired at the foreigners.

During Thursday's hearing, the tribunal recorded statements of three more witnesses, including SP Kakar.

On the other hand, Director Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), Shakeel Ahmed told the tribunal that the agency had no record about the foreigners’ entry in Pakistan.

He added that eight to ten thousand people daily cross the Pak-Afghan border from Chaman without proper documents, inferring that it was difficult to track the movement of thousands of people, daily.

Director General Public Relations Kamran Asad also placed on record the footage of the incident collected from various tv channels on the orders of the tribunal.

Earlier in the day the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights has termed the Kharotabad shooting incident a serious human rights violation and will send a parliamentary fact-finding mission to inspect the site.

The decision came at a committee meeting on Wednesday. Findings of the mission, headed by Adviser to the Prime Minister Mustafa Khokar, will be discussed in a committee meeting next week.

Committee Chairperson Riaz Fatiyana had rejected the Quetta police’s preliminary report. “Police and FC personnel opened fire on the unarmed foreigners as brutally as though they are licensed to kill,” he said.

Fatiyana directed the Quetta DIG and incumbent and former district police officers to appear before the committee in the next meeting, to be held on June 24.

FC Quetta sector commander Brigadier Abdul Rasheed, who was present in the meeting, said that a commission, headed by a high court judge, had already been formed to investigate the matter. “It will be appropriate to wait for the findings of that commission,” he said.