Murder most foul: Mystery shrouds judge murder case

Pindi top cop rebuffs Taliban claim of responsibility

ISLAMABAD: Mystery continued to shroud murder of a senior judge in Rawalpindi on Wednesday. Preliminary investigation into murder of the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Tahir Khan Niazi revealed that he was once booked under Section 302 (pre-meditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

“We have also heard that he was once booked under premeditated murder charges but we are not sure about it,” said the Rawalpindi Police Spokesperson, Imran Haider.

“Right now, we are not in a position to completely confirm or deny it.”

Read: TTP claims killing of additional sessions judge

Police have started probing the case on the line of previously lodged FIR against the slain judge. Earlier, the police had conjectured that the killing could be a result of personal enmity or family feud.

“Three different teams have been assigned to probe the murder,” Haider said. He added that a team headed by DSP Raja Azmat Hayat was specifically looking into this aspect. “The cases that were pending with the slain judge are also being investigated,” Haider said. “Two other teams are probing other aspects of the case,” he said.

A day after the incident, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani claimed in a statement that a special task force had targeted the judge. The statement, however, did not mention the reason.

The Rawalpindi police chief rebuffed the TTP statement. “I have never heard a more absurd claim,” City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Abbasi said.

“Neither the evidence nor the circumstances show that it was TTP’s work,” the police officer said.

The CPO said that it appeared “weird” and “strange” as the attackers fired a single shot and that too in the ribs, which was not the “typical TTP style”.

Abbasi said that neither the attackers scaled the wall nor did they break the door to enter the house. “They took advantage of an open door to commit “a robbery”,” he said.

Previously, Abbasi had said that three unidentified attackers entered the judge’s house and opened fire, adding they later escaped on a motorcycle. Abbasi had confirmed that the judge was conducting jail trial of Sabra Bibi’s murder, which involved a realtor but it would be too early to say, this was related to the case.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Nasirul Mulk and Lahore High Court Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik visited the residence of the slain judge and expressed their sympathies with the bereaved family.

Read: Sessions judge gunned down in Rawalpindi

Justice Malik directed the police to arrest the culprits involved.

Meanwhile, Rawalpindi District Bar Association President GM Shah at a press conference demanded that the case be tried in a military court. The lawyers observed strike to protest the killing. The strike will continue for two more days.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2015.