‘Court will not allow extrajudicial killings’

PHC directs police to re-investigate alleged encounter of youth

PESHAWAR: The high court on Thursday said that it will not allow anyone to commit extrajudicial killings in the province and rejected a police investigation report into the death of a youngster in an alleged fake encounter.

This was stated on Thursday by a two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ijaz Anwar, as they heard a petition against the killing of Sheheryar in an alleged police encounter.

Justice Qaiser remarked that no one will be allowed to commit extrajudicial killings like former Sindh police officer Rao Anwar. He went on to remark that Anwar had damaged the country’s image and that court will not allow a repeat of such incidents.

Justice Qaiser further asked how can an officer of SP rank give a clean chit to officials in the inquiry of a case.

Such actions will shatter the public’s trust in police, he observed.

The petitioner, Baswara — mother of Sheheryar — argued before the court that her son had been gunned down in a fake police encounter.

Peshawar CCPO Muhammad Ali Gandapur, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Additional Advocate General Syed Sikander Shah and police department legal advisor Syed Abdul Fayyaz were present during the hearing.

Justice Qaisar asked Peshawar CCPO Muhammad Ali Gandapur as to how did the police investigate the incident and why was the statement of an eye witness not included in the report.

CCPO Gandapur told the court that he had held several meeting with the investigation team who maintained that only one eyewitness appeared before it while the second eyewitness did not respond to their requests for recording his statement.

The court was further informed that the eyewitness in the case was a close relative of the deceased and his statement cannot be considered as strong evidence.

Justice Qaiser remarked he was surprised to see the inquiry report as the facts appeared to have been twisted to protect the police officials involved.

An eyewitness in the case, Abdul Sattar told the court that the deceased had been arrested from his house and was later reported to have been killed in an encounter.

How can the court believe such a report, Justice Qaiser asked. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2020.