Varsity chief, security officer excluded from murder probe

Operations DIG says will seek report on alleged murder of campus security guard

ISLAMABAD:  

Police in the federal capital has allegedly refused to include the head of a university and its security chief in the investigation of an alleged murder of a teenaged security guard. A senior police official, though, has sought a report about the incident.

The varsity, however, maintains that the two officials are not involved in the incident in any way, but are open to being probed.

Gulshan Bibi wrote in her complaint that she had been informed on September 11 that her 18-year-old son, Muhammad Rasib, had been shot by unidentified suspects at the Comsats University in Islamabad where he worked as part of the campus security apparatus.

Devastated by the news, she rushed to the campus barefoot. At the gate of the varsity, she was stopped by security.

Despite Identifying herself as the mother of the victim, the guards denied her entry, allegedly stating that they had orders from COMSATS head Raheel Qamar and Chief of Security Aftab to not let anyone inside. They added that she could also not see her son’s body.

The mother then approached the Shehzad Town police station and registered a complaint. Following that, the varsity administration finally allowed her to enter the premises, hours after the incident. Gulshan alleged that the varsity administration used the time to tamper evidence.

The aggrieved mother further demanded that the varsity administration show her the footage captured by the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed around campus. However, Qamar allegedly intervened and refused to grant her request.

These actions, Gulshan said, added to her suspicions and alleged in her police complaint that both the varsity chief and its chief security officer were somehow involved in the incident and should be investigated.

Despite the claims from the victim’s mother, the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) of Islamabad Police have refused to include the two COMSATS officers in their probe.

The mother of the teenaged victim said that she has now sent applications against the officials to Islamabad Police Operations DIG Waqaruddin Syed apart from lodging a complaint on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Citizen Portal.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2019.