HYDERABAD: The defiance of Karachi police officials in their failed bid to rescue Dr Aftab Qureshi was highlighted, as the judicial commission on the neurosurgeon’s murder recorded statements on Monday.
Haseeb Afzal Beg, the former SSP Hyderabad, submitted that Karachi’s Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) and Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) officials had not informed the Hyderabad police before conducting the raid.
“We received the first call at 5:18 am when the operation was already under way,” he told Additional District and Sessions Judge-II Aijaz Khaskheli. “When the [Bhitai Nagar] SHO reached the place, he saw one of the suspects lying about 500 metres away from the bungalow.”
On May 30, Dr Qureshi, a policeman and a suspected kidnapper were killed during a raid to recover the doctor who was kidnapped earlier that month from Karachi.
The former SSP told the court that the incident’s FIR was lodged at the Bhitai Nagar police station, implicating the slain kidnapper and unidentified suspects. The case registered on the complaint of an AVCC policeman was, however, transferred to the Crime Branch on the Sindh inspector general’s order.
The judge has so far recorded testimonies of AVCC chief Noorul Haq Rind, CPLC deputy chief Najeed Danewala, Dr Baldev of Civil hospital, Ghulam Sarwar Noonari, the owner of the bungalow used in the crime, and the doctors of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences.
In addition to the judicial inquiry, the forensic report of the crime scene has also provided some intriguing revelations. The bullet casings found from the bungalow matched the ammunition of the AVCC. This was in contrast to the assertions of the AVCC and CPLC that they did not fire any shots inside the house.
Earlier in June, the Crime Branch had arrested five suspects on the information obtained from a suspect, Ashok Kumar, who was arrested along with his mother from the bungalow. DIG Farhat Ali Junejo had claimed that a professional gang of kidnappers was involved in the doctor’s kidnapping.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2012.
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