Travelling aide: JIT formed to probe suspect in Imran Farooq’s murder

SHC rejects suspect's wife’s petition asking for urgent hearing.

KARACHI: The provincial home department has formed a joint investigation team (JIT) to conduct an inquiry into the involvement of a man in the murder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq.

Moazzam Ali, the owner of a freight company, was arrested a few days ago from Azizabad after he was accused of helping two suspects in Dr Farooq's murder obtain visas for London. Suspect Ali was presented before an anti-terrorism court on Tuesday when it was decided that he will be kept in 90-day detention. According to the law enforcement agencies, Ali had sponsored the visas of the two hired assassins who stabbed Dr Farooq on September 16, 2010, in London.

To investigate these claims, Sindh home secretary issued an order, number SO(LE-1)HD/3-17/2015, on Wednesday. The order came on the recommendation of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, via letter number 1774/GS(INT)/2787/2015, which was issued on April 14.

The JIT has been formed under DIG South Dr Jameel Ahmed. Federal Investigative Agency's deputy director Ashraf Alam, and representatives of the Inter-Services Intelligence, 202 survey section and Rangers will also be a part of the JIT.

DIG Ahmed said it would be premature to comment on the investigation process. "We have to submit the report to the home department within seven days from the date of the completion of the investigation," he assured.

Earlier, Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had announced Ali's arrest and admitted that he was a 'facilitator' in the murder of Dr Farooq. Soon after Ali's arrest, the MQM disowned him as a party activist.

According to sources, the two assassins, Mohsin Ali and Kashif Khan, had boarded a plane to Sri Lanka from Heathrow Airport the same day as Farooq's murder. They are now believed to be in the custody of a Pakistani intelligence agency.

SHC rejects petition

The Sindh High Court (SHC) rejected on Wednesday a request for an urgent hearing on a petition claiming that Ali was unlawfully detained by the Rangers. A division bench, comprising justices Ahmed Ali M Sheikh and Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro, put off the hearing on the petition filed by his wife. On Monday, Sadia Bano had taken the provincial home secretary, the Rangers director-general, the Sindh IG, the Azizabad SHO and others to court over Ali's detention in a Rangers raid on Sunday.

Bano approached the Azizabad police station but the SHO refused to help and the even the Rangers officials did not cooperate, she claimed. Bano argued in the plea that the failure of the law enforcers to divulge information on her husband's whereabouts is a violation of Article 18 of the Constitution. The court was pleaded to order the Rangers to produce the detainee in a court along with details of a case, if any, filed against him.

When the two judges took up the matter on Wednesday, the petitioner and her lawyer were absent. Dismissing the miscellaneous application, the judges adjourned the hearing for a later date.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2015.