Kharotabad incident: Committee to probe attempts to tamper with evidence

Move comes soon after journalists demand security for their colleagues who filmed the ‘fake encounter’.

ISLAMABAD:

Amid heated protests by journalists demanding the safety of their colleagues who filmed the gruesome killings of five Chechens in Kharotabad, Senate deputy chairman Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali on Tuesday formed a special committee to probe reported attempts to destroy the evidence connected to the horrific incident.

The move came soon after the media reported that those responsible for filming the incident were tortured by law enforcement agencies in an attempt to stop them from recording their statements.

Journalists in the press gallery went for a token walk-out from both houses to divert the attention of lawmakers towards the issue. “It is time to rein in the ‘invisible forces’ to control the rising attacks on journalists who are generally considered soft targets,” said Jamali, who was chairing the Upper House of Parliament.

Minister for Law and Justice Maula Baksh Chandio will head the senate special committee, while the leader of the house and leader of the opposition will nominate senators from Balochistan and Sindh to conduct the proceedings for the early completion of the report.

Leader of the house Nayyer Hussain Bokhari will direct the interior and home ministeries of Sindh and Balochistan to ensure the safety of the journalists who televised the extrajudicial killing of a young man in Karachi and the five Chechens in Kharotabad by security officials.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Mir Lashkari Raisani told the senate there is ample evidence that suggests law enforcement agencies were bent on destroying any proof that links them to the Kharotabad incident.

Senators across party lines protested against the non-implementation of the senate chairman’s ruling to provide security to journalists who were facing life threats.

Earlier, the senate chairman asked the leader of the house to direct authorities to provide security to reporter Zahid Khokar, cameraman Abdul Salam and photojournalist Jamal Tarkai, who captured these unfortunate events on film.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamaat-e-Islami and both factions of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid continued their protest to boycott senate proceedings over the controversial nomination of JUI-F Senator Haidri as leader of the opposition while, the Muttahida Quami Movement senators staged a walk-out to protest against the renewed spate of targeted killings in Karachi.

Photojournalist arrested and released

Jamal Tarakai, the journalist who submitted videos and photographs of the Kharotabad incident to the judicial tribunal probing the incident, was released an hour later on Tuesday after being arrested and tortured by police personnel at the Kharotabad police station in Quetta earlier that morning.

Tarakai told the tribunal that the police arrested him because of the statement he gave against them.

He said he received a threat from an unidentified man who called the Quetta Press Club and told Vice President Yaqoob Shahwani that Tarakai had made a “huge mistake” by handing over the footage and photographs to the tribunal.

Judicial tribunal Chief Justice Hashim Kakar expressed strong resentment over the assault of key witnesses, police surgeon Dr Baqar Shah and photo journalist Jamal Tarakai.

However, Station House officers of Ghawalmandi and Sadar police station who were suspended soon after the incident involving the attack on Dr Shah refuted before the tribunal that they tortured the police surgeon. “Dr Shah was sitting inside his car on Prince Road and was drinking alcohol. I just requested him not to drink alcohol in a public place,” claimed SHO Naimatullah.

SHO Ghawalmandi backed his colleague’s statement saying they barely laid a hand on him.

(With additional information by our correspondent in Quetta)

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2011.