Three convicts responsible for killing Balochistan’s minister pay the price

The men opened fire at provincial excise and taxation former minister during a robbery in 2009

KARACHI: A district and sessions court sentenced on Saturday three men to life imprisonment after convicting them of murdering a minister from Balochistan in a shooting incident six years ago.

Balochistan's excise and taxation former minister, Mir Rustam Khan Jamali, was killed when assailants opened fire at his Toyota Prado in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on August 6, 2009. The investigators deemed the incident to be a carjacking attempt as the assailants first tried to stop the car and, upon resistance, shot Jamali multiple times in his jaw and neck.

The first suspect, Hayat Shah, to be held in the case was taken into custody from Abbotabad's Ayub Medical Complex in October, the same year. Shah was receiving medical assistance for a bullet wound he suffered during a quarrel with his gang members.

The following day, the law enforcers claimed arresting his accomplice Muhammad Taj during a raid in Karachi. According to the investigators, the suspects allegedly confessed to killing Jamali during a robbery and told the police the names of their accomplices.

Subsequently, the investigators arrested three more suspects, Habibullah, Kamran Latifullah and Abdul Hafeez, in the case. However, another suspect, Din Muhammad, has yet to be apprehended.

The case, earlier being heard at a regular court, was later transferred to central prison's judicial complex as the authorities believed it was unsafe to take the suspects to the court for hearings.

The suspects kept denying the charges contending that they were falsely implicated in the case. However, three of them, Shah, Taj and Habibullah, failed to prove their innocence as prosecution brought up substantial evidence against them. The judge, Sikandar Ameer Pahore, also ordered confiscation of the properties of the three convicts.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2015.