Safari Park encounter: Encounter was genuine, suspects are not, says police

CIA DIG said that none of those arrested were seen in CCTV footage of the incident.

KARACHI:

The Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of CIA, Sultan Khawaja, said that the Safari Park encounter, that claimed the lives of the two police officials, was in fact genuine, however, the role of some police officers involved in the incident was dubious.

Addressing a press conference at the old CIA headquarters on Saturday, he said that evidence suggested the involvement of elements of the land mafia while the role of the Gulistan-e-Jauhar police station’s SHO was highly suspicious.

With reference to footage captured by the City Government’s CCTV cameras, Khawaja said that the accused were seen engaged in the exchange of gunfire with the police. He said that none of those presently in the police’s custody could be seen in the footage leading to the belief that they were innocent and not involved in the incident. He added that those assailants who were seen in the footage were killed in the same encounter.

On August 15, during a five-hour long encounter inside Safari Park, two police officers and four suspects were killed, while five policemen, including two station house officers, were critically injured.

Suspects released

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso of the Anti-Terrorism Court-II has ordered the police officer investigating the Safari Park encounter case to explain, on September 12, why five suspects arrested in the case were released by him under section 169 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC).

The investigation officer had informed the court that he had released Abdul Ghaffar, Mohabat Ali, Abdul Malik, Imtiaz and Samiullah as no evidence was found regarding their involvement in the case.

The court also sent four suspects - Rajan, Imran alias Toofan, Ahmer and Allah Wadhayo - to jail on remand and ordered the IO to submit the final charge-sheet against them on the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2013.