Firing in district courts lays bare lax security

SP Saddar says investigating how weapons came inside court premises

ISLAMABAD: The incident of aerial firing between the two groups in the district court of Islamabad has raised serious questions on the security of the judges.

The Margalla Police arrested some 15 suspects after the incident of aerial firing in the district court of Islamabad on Saturday. The police also recovered weapons from the suspects and registered cases against them under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The DIG Operations of Islamabad, Waqar Uddin, reached the incident site after Islamabad IG Muhammad Aamir Zulfikar Khan.

The arrested suspects include Nasir, Saqib, Atif, Massoud, Kashif, Afzal Farooqui, Azam, Sajid, Sajjad, Imran, Nahid, Zafar, Khalid, Zafraan and Adnan.

SP Saddar Naeem Iqbal suspended the policemen deployed for the security of the district court. Replying to a querry by Daily Express he said police were investigating how weapons came inside the court premises.

Contrary to the clear instructions from the Islamabad High Court Registrar regarding the security measures, the loopholes in the security arrangements have been unveiled after the incident.

Previously, the special branch of police termed the district court as a security risk in their report while the District and Session Judge Sohail Nasir also highlighted the poor condition of the security in the lower court whereas the registrar of Islamabad High Court also asked the SSP Security to take full proof measures for the security of the court.

Meanwhile a police statement said nspector General police took notice of the incident, following which on directives of  Deputy Inspector General  (DIG) Operations Waqar Uddin, a team was constituted to arrest the accused involving in firing incident.

The team, comprising ASP Margalla Ashya Gul SHO Margalla Inspector  Abdul Jbbar, SP-inspector Muhmmad Ishaq, Agha Yasar, SI Snaullah under the supervision of SP Naeem, cordoned off the area and arrested  15 accused.

The police from the seized vehicles had also recovered one 12-bore peter- gun along with 76 rbullets, three SMG guns along with four magazines, 116 bullets, one 222-bore rifle, one 223-bore gun and four magazines, 122 bullets, four 30- bore pistols along with magazine and  two 9MM pistols.

The SP soon after the incident shared all the information with IG Aamir Zulfiqar and DIG Waqar. He also apprised the seniors that all the accused had been arrested and no loss of life had been reported in the incident.

A case has been registered under terrorism act in Margalla police station. The SP suspended police officials deployed at F-8 Katchery check post and ordered investigation against them.

The IG and DIG operations appreciated timely action of SP Naeem Iqbal and his team.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2019.