SP among 10 cops blamed for Model Town riots

Chief minister, ex-law minister, ex-Operations DIG exonerated

LAHORE: A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing clashes between the Punjab Police and Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers on June 17, 2014, has given the prime minister, the chief minister, the former law minister and the then Operations DIG a clean chit. It fixes blame on a police superintendent and nine other policemen.

A copy of the JIT’s report, available with The Express Tribune, submitted to the government on Wednesday says that the JIT had obtained the duty chart of policemen deployed at Model Town on the day of the incident to ascertain how many police personnel had been moved on orders of the senior police officers present at the scene.

Former operations DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar was cleared of charges against him.

The JIT noted that though PAT’s complaint said that Jabbar had arrived at the Minhajul  Quran Secretariat at around midnight on the chief minister’s and former law minister’s orders, there was no video or photographic evidence, phone data, log book or witnesses who could corroborate that. Similarly, the report says, allegations against CM Shahbaz Sharif and MPA Rana Sanaullah are also baseless.

The report absolves the prime minister, interior minister and other federal ministers mentioned in PAT’s complaint saying they have nothing to do with maintaining law and order in the    Punjab.

It says there were no witnesses against them in the supplementary statements recorded in the case.

It says that the cell phones and call records of nine policemen were obtained to check who the policemen had been in touch with on the day of the incident.

The report says that the firearms they had been carrying that day, according to the logbook, had been sent to the forensic lab for tests to check which policemen had fired shots.

The report says the Rescue-1122 director general, media personnel and the Model Town assistant commissioner had been interviewed in connection with the case. However, PAT’s leaders had neither showed up to record their statements nor had they assisted the JIT in its investigation.

The JIT was formed on an FIR registered on a complaint by Minhajul Quran’s administration after the PAT’s leaders had rejected the first JIT formed after the incident. The new JIT comprised Quetta  CCPO Abdul Razzaq Cheema, SSP Shehzad Akbar, CIA DSP Khalid Abubakar, Col Ahmad from the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) and Muhammad Ali from the IB (Intelligence Bureau). PAT had rejected this JIT as well.

The JIT had collected TV footage of the clashes which suggested that a rumour that two policemen had been murdered was making rounds during the anti-encroachment operation.

At least 10 policemen were challaned in connection with the case. The report says in the TV footages,Security SP Salman Ali Khan, among others, was seen firing at PAT workers.

The report says some of the policemen had fired shots after receiving direct orders to do so from SP Khan. SHO Amir Saleem, two sub-inspectors of the Elite Force and six constables have also been charged.

The report says 42 PAT workers were also challaned separately after they were seen vandalising public and private property in the TV footages.

The FIR had alleged that Model Town SP Tariq Aziz Sindhu, Headquarters SP Maroof Safdar Wahla, Civil Lines SP Umar Riaz Cheema, Model Town AC Tariq Chandio, Kahna SHO Inspector Ishtiaq, and Nishter Town SHO Ahmad Majeed Usman were also responsible for the deaths of 14 PAT workers.

The JIT report does not mention any of these officers.

A member of the JIT, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that they had fixed blame on only on officials who could be seen in TV footages.

Other police officers had not been challaned because of lack of tangible evidence against them and because the complainants had failed to show up before the JIT.

PAT leader Raheeq Abbasi said his party had rejected the Joint Investigation Team, and had decided not participate in its inquiry.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2015.