Taxila Church attack : SC disappointed with investigation

LAHORE: The Supreme Court (SC) admonished, on Wednesday, prosecution department officials for a poorly conducted investigation into the grenade attack on a Taxila church. The attack in 2002 had left four women dead and 25 injured.

A three member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing the appeals of the three men convicted in the case. The bench saw lacunas in the investigation and directed the concerned SP (Investigation) to appear in person before the court on Thursday.

Justice Ramday asked why progress had not been made since one of the attackers had been killed and his CNIC was found on him. He quizzed the prosecutor as to what they expected from investigators who had hardly passed matriculation and did not even know the meaning of the word ‘terrorism?’ The judge said proper training was not being given to investigate incidents of terrorism.

“Every bearded man is a suspect and that’s why I avoid having a beard,” Justice Ramday declared. He said investigators do not thoroughly investigate terrorism cases and then blame the courts for acquitting the accused.

Convicts Saifur Rehman, Muhammad Ayaz and Abu Bakr were given death sentences by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi on March 31, 2004. The Lahore High Court confirmed the verdict on December 12, 2006. The three then appealed the SC.

The lawyer for the three men submitted that they had no role in the attack and were falsely implicated.

He attributed malafide intentions to the complainants who identified the accused, adding that the police had made them stand in an identification line of 20 people with shackles on. He said the complainants were instructed to ‘identify’ the men who were in shackles.

He said the even though investigators found the dead body of attacker Kamran Meer along with a grenade, they had not moved forward in their investigation.

Lawyer Muhammad Wajeehullah Khan, another counsel for the convicts, said that although the accused had participated in the Afghan jihad, they had not committed any acts of violence in the country. Khan said the police had pegged the men because of their role in the Afghan jihad.

According to the prosecution, the convicts attacked the church on August 9, 2002, leaving four Christian women dead and 25 others injured.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2010.