Dumped bodies: Court orders probing team to expedite investigations

Chief justice says all victims have been found in the same manner.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has asked the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) police team, investigating alleged custodial killings, to expedite its inquiry and reach a meaningful conclusion.

The orders were issued by a PHC division bench comprising Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Afsar Ali Shah during the hearing of a suo motu notice regarding the recovery of bodies belonging to missing persons in and around the city.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Deputy Superintendent Police Hamidullah Baloch informed the bench the team had been collecting information from concerned quarters in the case of Khalid Mehmood, who had allegedly been picked up by security agencies from Sargodha.

Baloch said a letter had been written to Sargodha’s district police officer and the team was waiting on a response. He further said in Arif Shah’s case, the victim had apparently been picked up from Bacha Khan International Airport on February 13, 2010, with his body being recovered on August 15, 2012.



The bench said it was impossible for ordinary people to enter the airport and kidnap someone, and expressed its reservations over CCPO Imtiaz Altaf’s performance. “We don’t have trust in him because his appointment was politically motivated.”

The bench asked the team to investigate details regarding the kidnappers’ identity and location in Mehmood’s case.

The bench also directed police to continue investigations under sections 177 and 179 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

“All the victims have been killed and dumped in the same manner with their identity cards found alongside the body,” CJ Khan observed.

Additional Inspector General Liaqat Ali informed the bench that authorities were trying their level best to probe the issue from different angles.

“We have been saying it again to bring them before the courts,” CJ Khan said. He ordered to expedite the process of investigation and added meaningful results should be brought before the court on April 17.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2013.