Implementing tribunal’s decision: Two policemen responsible for Kharotabad killings dismissed

Orders follow recommendations of tribunal tasked to investigate.

QUETTA:

The police on Wednesday dismissed two officials following recommendations of the judicial tribunal tasked to investigate the killing of five foreigners, including three women, in Kharotabad on May 17, 2011.

Station House Officer (SHO) Fazlur Rehman and Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Raza Khan had been declared ‘main culprits’ by the tribunal headed by Justice Hashim Khan Kakar.

“Both officials were dismissed from service following the recommendations of the judicial tribunal,” said Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta Ehsan Mehboob.

“They showed lack of competence to handle the situation,” he added.

When asked if any case would be registered against them, Mehboob said the tribunal had only pronounced that the officials were responsible for the incident and that they handled the situation unprofessionally.

Besides Rehman and Khan, the tribunal held two more officials responsible for the killing of the foreigners – former CCPO Dawood Junejo and Frontier Corps official Faisal Shahzad.

Junejo was made an Officer on Special Duty, i.e. officer waiting for a posting, after the incident. His case is with the Establishment Division which is holding an inquiry, a senior police official said.

Meanwhile, Shahzad is being questioned by the interior ministry.

“The interior ministry is holding an inquiry and will take a decision soon,” said an official of the Frontier Corps.

The police had sent the judicial tribunal’s recommendations to the law ministry for assistance, following which departmental action had been ordered against the officials responsible.

Though the tribunal declared all five suspects, including three women one of whom was pregnant when shot dead, ‘trained terrorists,’ it simultaneously said that the officials could have caught the suspects alive since they were unarmed.

The key witness and driver who brought the foreigners to Quetta form Kuchlak, Ata Muhammad, retracted twice from his statements.

In his final statement he said he did not see anything except a few bottles of shampoo and clothes with the foreigners.

“I lied under duress that the foreigners were carrying hand grenades and other weapons. The police threatened me with dire consequences,” Muhammad told journalists earlier.

The incident witnessed a host of controversies: police surgeon Dr Baqar Shah who carried autopsies and eyewitness and photo journalist Jamal Tarakai who submitted footage and came forward for testimony, were beaten up and detained by police official at public places.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2011.