KARACHI:
A detective in the Sarfraz Shah case has rubbished the suggestion that the investigating team tried to manipulate statements to try and get the case into an anti-terrorism court instead of an ordinary one.
On Saturday, DSP Altaf Hussain, who assisted the investigating officer, told the anti-terrorism court that actually the evidence he collected and statements he recorded from prosecution witnessess established that the killing of the 22-year-old in the Clifton park on June 8 was an act of terrorism. In the afternoon, DSP Altaf was cross examined for five long hours by the defence lawyers before Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso. The DSP, who is the supervisory police officer for Khawaja Ajmer Nagri police station, has been with the force for 26 years.
He agreed to a suggestion by a defence counsel that the gun issued to the accused Shahid Zafar was used in the alleged murder while other weapons issued to the co-accused were not used and not a single bullet was fired from these weapons.
He confirmed that the FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) or ballistics report was positive only in the case of accused Shaid Zafar. To a question about the alleged toy pistol recovered from the deceased Sarfraz Shah and whether it looked like a genuine fire arm, he said that it depended on experience and varied from person to person.
He agreed to a question by the defence side that the investigators met the complainant a day before the statements were recorded. He denied the suggestion that he deposed at the behest of his superior police officers.
The court put off the proceedings till July 25.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 24th, 2011.
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