All implicated policemen held

ISLAMABAD: Waris Ali, an assistant sub-inspector who was one of four police officers implicated in the brutal killing of two brothers Muneeb and Mughees in Sialkot last month, surrendered to law enforcement personnel on Tuesday. Ali was the last among the absonding policemen to court arrest.

Advocate General of Punjab Khawaja Harris informed a three-member bench of the Supreme Court about his surrender.

While adjourning the hearing of the case on Monday, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had given a 24-hour deadline to Sialkot District Police Officer Bilal Siddique for the arrest of Ali. “The court will not tolerate any negligence in this case or permit to sabotage it,” the chief justice said during the course of the hearing.

Earlier, the DPO had said that Ali could not be traced and had run away. But when the ASI surrendered the chief justice said that it meant that the DPO had lied to the court before.

At the hearing on Tuesday, the chief justice said that the court is monitoring the case and the performance of police officials. He adjourned the hearing of the case till September 27 and directed the Sialkot RPO to appear before the court along with an investigation report covering all angles of the incident.

On August 15, an angry mob with the patronage of the Sialkot police tortured two brothers to death, accusing them of being robbers. The incident sparked wide condemnation around the globe after television channels showed the video of the gruesome incident.

Soon after the incident, the CJP took suo motu notice of the killing and assigned the task to Justice (Retd) Kazim Malik to conduct an inquiry into the lynching of the brothers.

An inquiry report prepared by Justice Malik revealed that the murdered youths were not criminals.  The report confirmed the involvement of ex-DPO Waqar Chohan in the incident and observed that the police had failed to act responsibly.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2010.