Under oath: Rangers deny killing MQM worker

In another missing persons case, police tell judge that man died in encounter.

KARACHI:

Pakistan Rangers told the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday that the paramilitary force has neither detained nor killed a worker belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

The body of the MQM activist, Noman Ali, was found dumped near Super Highway last December.

Major Ashfaque Ahmed, the deputy advocate-general of the Sindh Rangers, made this claim while filing comments on behalf of the paramilitary force's provincial deputy director. Ahmed told the two-judge bench that ground checks were made to seek information about the detention or arrest of the alleged missing person at all the wing offices of the forces in the province, including the Rangers Intelligence wing.

"The deceased, Noman Ali, was neither arrested nor the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, had any concern with his killing," Ahmed said, requesting the court to exempt the Rangers authorities from this case.

Apart from Ali's, two other bullet-riddled bodies of Jawed aka Bunda and Saleem aka Kabari were also found on Super Highway on December 23. The MQM had claimed that the individuals were affiliated with the party and termed their deaths as 'extrajudicial killings'.

Later, Samreen Jahan, the widow of Ali, went to the high court for an inquiry into the killing. She had named the chief minister, governor, chief secretary, interior minister, home secretary, Rangers DG, Sindh police chief, Karachi police chief along with other police officials as respondents.

In her plea, Jahan had alleged that the Rangers personnel had arrested Ali and did not 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. The widow said her husband should have been brought to a court if he was a suspect in any case, rather than being murdered.

On Tuesday, the Rangers authorities denied having detained or being involved in Ali's killing. Meanwhile, additional advocate-general Chaudhry Rafiq Rajhrovi requested for time to seek instructions from the official respondents over this matter. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who headed the bench, allowed the request and adjourned the hearing till March 11.

Missing person's killing dispute

Another SHC bench ordered the police officials submit police papers along with a postmortem report of a man, Naseeruddin, allegedly taken away by men belonging to the law enforcement and spy agencies from Gulshan-e-Iqbal on August 27, 2013.

Headed by Justice Shah, the bench ordered DSP Nasir Lodhi informed the judges that Naseeruddin was shot dead in an encounter. His father, Syed Zainuddin, disputed the claim, arguing that his son was in the custody of the agency for the last six months, therefore, he could not be killed in an encounter. Secondly, the injuries found on his body were caused by a sharp-edged weapon, which could not take place during encounter, the father insisted.

The two-judges found that the post-mortem report was missing in the details submitted by the investigation officer. "Let the same be placed on record along with police papers," the bench ordered. The hearing was adjourned till March 11.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2014.