The Navy official, Dilpazeer Akhtar, has been booked on charges of kidnapping for ransom. PHOTO: FILE
The Anti-Terrorism Court issued notices to the deputy district public prosecutor and police officials on Friday to present their arguments on whether the special court or military court should hold trail for an official of the Pakistan Naval intelligence.
The Navy official, Dilpazeer Akhtar, has been booked on charges of kidnapping for ransom. A prominent fisheries trader, Abdul Khaliq, was abducted by a group of five unidentified people near the Creek Club in the Defence Housing Authority, Karachi on August 24.
The court issued notices after officials of the Pakistan Navy filed two applications seeking trial of Akhtar in a military court while also requesting that the suspect may not be produced before any other court until the court decides the first application. In the written application submitted before judge Saleem Raza of the ATC-III, the Navy officials stated that according to the military law, the suspects belonging to the armed forces are tried only in the military courts and awarded sentence according to the military law.
In the second application, the officials submitted that the suspect may not be produced before any other court until the first application was decided.
Following the applications, the court issued notices to the deputy district public prosecutor and the investigating officer to present their arguments over the applications on September 3.
Meanwhile, the investigating officer of the case requested the court for remand of the suspect but the judge turned down the request, saying that remand of suspects couldn't be given in their absence.
Ransom collection
According to the police, the family of the trader, Abdul Khaliq, received a ransom call of Rs5 million a day after the kidnapping. The kidnappers, however, agreed to take the amount in two installments.
The police and officials of the Citizens Police Liaison Committee went with the family to pay the first installment of Rs2 million. Dilpazeer Akhtar was arrested while the others managed to escape. A card from the suspect's possession reportedly revealed that he was an official of the naval intelligence. The police later found Khaliq from the naval headquarters adjacent to the Sindh Chief Minister House.
Three cases have been registered against Akhtar and others at the Boat Basin police station.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 31st, 2013.
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Let Navy do the trial in Military court, the trail will be fair and culprits will be punished just like 3 Army Generals who were involved in NLC corruption case.
should be trail done in Anti-Terrorism Court ,where justice and punishment will be swift..if shifted to military court ,no charged will be framed...b/c immediately after the news ..naval departed denied that no naval official was involved in that incidence ....or may be more naval officials are involved in this racked.and also may be involved.in many cases of kidnapping and extortion which is going in karachi for the last 5 years
If they do it in military court then we will hear nothing of it. Will be hushed up like the investigation of Mehran Base Attack & nothing will happen.
Let them try him in military court. The justice would be swift and punishment harsher. He needs severe punishment soon. In usual courts, either there would be jail break or the verdict would take ages.
Well disappointing to see the naval intelligence is as bad as any other criminal organization. This is the real face of Pakistan intelligence. The trial should be conducted as per the rule of law which applies for every citizen of Pakistan. The navy only want to conduct trial in the military code so they can run away with such a crime with the least punishment. The force that should be safeguarding the citizens gets themselves involved in kidnapping and asking for ransom from its citizens. These actions from intelligence forces need to be taken seriously and exposed properly so we know what these agencies are capable of when they're not being tested in courts. On the other hand, well done cplc for successfully recovering another victim of extortion case.
When a naby employee indulges in a civilian crime such as extortion and kidnapping, why should they not be prosecuted in civilian courts?
At least in India when a serving army person was found to be involved in the Samjhauta express case, there ws no request by army that he should not be tried in civilian courts.
One has also not heard what happened to the 3 retired Pakistani army officers who had been involved in corruption whom the army had indicated that they would try?
Such cases clearly underscore the need to develop legislation, terms of references, area of work, supervision and accountability of the myriad intelligence agencies operating in Pakistan. Like Developed Countries, the basic rule should be that the local police are the authority of arrest and detention. Any intelligence or counter-terrorism agency must either operate with/in the cooperation of local police so that the courts are involved. Or have its own court to hold such agencies accountable. The police should also fearlessly and without favour registered cases against all intelligence agencies officials violating the law of land. The media, parliamentarians and courts should back police in such efforts. Establishing the rule of law is in the best interest of Pakistan and its common citizens.