Bilal Mullah’s murder: Victim’s viscera sent to examiner to determine cause of death

The deceased had died mysteriously in police custody - family blames LEAs for his death.

KARACHI: A district and sessions court ordered to send the viscera of Bilal alias Mullah, who died in the custody of Sachal police, to the Sindh government’s chemical examiner to conduct necessary tests to determine the cause of his death, on Monday.

District Malir judicial magistrate, Naveed Asghar Shaikh, who was deputed to conduct inquest proceedings of the deceased, sent a letter along with the viscera of the victim to the chemical examiner.

Bilal, along with three of his companions, was arrested on July 17 after Rangers and police personnel conducted a targeted operation in Ali Town, Sikander Goth. The operation was conducted in response to the incident where two paramilitary soldiers were wounded by gunfire on July 15 near the Rangers’ check post on Abul Hassan Isphani Road, opposite al-Asif Square in Sohrab Goth.



During the inquest proceedings, postmortem of the deceased was carried out and the viscera were preserved in three jars, duly sealed, for chemical examination and other relevant tests to ascertain the cause of death, revealed the letter.

“Since the accused died in the police custody and the investigating officer was party, the viscera were handed over to police surgeon Dr Jalil Qadir for safe custody,” the judge stated in the letter.

In the letter, the judge directed the Nazir to receive the viscera from the police surgeon and hand the specimen over to the chemical examiner for necessary tests as required by law. Following Bilal’s death, his father, Yasin, had filed a complaint through FIR No. 383/13, 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the PPC against the Rangers and police personnel at Sachal police station. Bilal’s family, meanwhile, holds the law enforcement agencies responsible for his death.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2013.