Pursuing justice: Cases filed against alleged extra-judicial killings of MQM activists

Widows of the deceased claim their husbands were innocent.

KARACHI:

Families of  Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activists, whose dead bodies were found from the Super Highway, approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Saturday against the alleged extrajudicial killings by law-enforcement agencies.

The wives of two of the men killed, Samreen Jahan and Shehla Jawed, filed separate petitions in the SHC pleading to the court to order an inquiry into the killings of their husbands.

The petitioners cited the chief minister, governor, chief secretary, interior minister, home secretary, Rangers director general, Sindh police chief, Karachi police chief along with other police officials as respondents.

Jahan alleged that the Rangers personnel arrested her husband and did not to produce him before any magistrate. She added that the paramilitary forces murdered her husband and threw his body in the bushes near Super Highway, although he was not involved in any criminal activities. Jawed also claimed that her husband was arrested by the Rangers and killed by law-enforcement officials.

Both petitioners said that their husbands should have been brought to a court if they were suspects in a case, rather than being murdered by law-enforcement agencies.

The bullet riddled bodies of Noman, Jawed aka Bunda and Saleem aka Kabari were found on the Super Highway on December 23, with their hands tied and blindfolds over their eyes. Later, in a statement, MQM claimed the individuals were affiliated with the party and termed their deaths as extrajudicial killings.

However, police have claimed that the deceased were suspects in various cases, with Jawed being accused in 150 killings.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2013.