Families of alleged dead rapists move court

Applicants seek judicial inquiry, FIR against cops involved in ‘fake encounter’

ISLAMABAD:

Family members of two suspected rapists, who were killed in an alleged fake police encounter in Sector D-12, have moved the Islamabad High Court.

The two suspected rapists were killed in an alleged fake police encounter after they had been taken into custody after they allegedly raped a 24-year-old woman in F-9 Park earlier this month.

The family members of the victims have sought action against the police officers involved in the alleged fake encounter.

In the petition filed through lawyers Adil Aziz Qazi and Kashif Shah, the petitioners have made the interior ministry, the human rights ministry, the Islamabad police inspector-general and the Islamabad deputy commissioner have been made respondents.

The petitioners have taken the plea that the Golra police had arrested the two slain persons accused of raping the girl before their murder.

The petitioners said that after arresting both of them, the police also arranged a meeting of family members with the slain victims at the police station.

The petitioners have sought a judicial inquiry into the killing of the two by the police and a case should be registered against the policemen involved in the incident.

The petitioners have also sought a fresh autopsy of the two slain victims. The petitioners have also demanded that the bodies of the victims, Nawab Khan and Iqbal Khan, should also be handed over to the heirs after a fresh post-mortem of both.

Earlier, Imaan Zainab Mazari, the counsel for the F-9 Park rape victim, alleged that the two suspected rapists were killed in a fake police encounter as they had been in custody.

Addressing a press conference along with human rights activist Farzana Bari in Islamabad, she said that the rape incident took place on February 2, and the suspects were arrested on February 15 and kept at the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Police Station in Sector I-9 before they were killed in the staged encounter.

She said that the rap victim was called to the FIA police station on Wednesday to identify the suspects and she had identified the suspects before her lawyers reached the police station where they were denied access to talk to the suspects.

The lawyer for the girl victim had said that she was 100 per cent sure that the two suspects were arrested on February 15 and they were in police custody before they were killed.

“What compelled the police to stage the fake encounter was unknown and it should be investigated. It is an extra-judicial killing,” she had asked adding that the suspects should have been allowed to face trial where they might also have spilled the beans about their other crimes.

She had said that the rape victim was not even notified by the special investigation team.

She had said that she attempted to talk to SSP Maria Mehmood about the case (arrest of suspects) and called her on her phone several times and asked for an appointment but she did not reply and police called the victim girl to identify the accused before she reached the police station.

She said that she messaged SSP Maria that if the accused were in police custody, then their DNA tests should be conducted. She said that the police officer responded with a thumbs up and acknowledged her message.

“The suspects were present at the CIA I-9 police station, it can be seen in the CCTV footage that the victim and I also went to the police station, and the identity of the accused was told by the victim girl. Both the accused were in police custody but they were murdered. We strongly condemn the extra-judicial killing,” she had said adding that Islamabad police first said in a tweet that they had traced the suspects before they deleted that tweet.

“Then the police said they have zeroed in on the suspects and they will be arrested soon before they staged a fake encounter story which is 100 per cent lie and baseless. The suspects were in police custody and were killed in custody,” she said and asked the Islamabad police chief if the whole encounter story could have been staged and concocted without his permission or knowledge and he was answerable for that.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2023.