Strange circumstances: Police lodge murder FIR in sub-inspector’s killing

The family, fearing reprisal, has allowed the police to register the case

HYDERABAD: The murder of sub-inspector Ishtiaq Aiwan, who was gunned down in Hyderabad on September 21, comes as a stark reminder of the failure of the Sindh Witness Protection Act, 2013.

The breakdown seems to have also struck the implementation of the National Action Plan. Two days after the killing of Aiwan, who was a complainant in a 2010 murder FIR against the prime suspect of Safoora Goth killings, Tahir Hussain Minhas, an FIR has been lodged at Makki Shah police station. But Aiwan’s family, including his elder brother, a senior police inspector, was too afraid to lodge the case, leaving it to the state to become the complainant.

On the complaint of sub-inspector Rana Abdul Razzaq, the FIR number 53/2015 under Sections 302, 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 6/7 of the Anti Terrorism Act has been registered. Two unknown killers have been nominated in the murder.

On Tuesday, the police and the Sindh Rangers conducted raids at several locations, including four seminaries in Hyderabad, detaining over four dozen people. But the police authorities have yet to make an announcement of any substantive breakthrough in the investigation.



Besides Aiwan, there are at least four policemen in Hyderabad who have to testify against Minhas in separate cases of attacks on the Hyderabad police. But they are reluctant, due to fear of reprisals and they have not been given adequate security.

“Even Aiwan didn’t want to testify against Tahir Minhas fearing that he would get killed. But the police officers kept persuading him,” a police officer, who has been a close acquaintance of the killed cop, told The Express Tribune. He was not sure whether or not Aiwan had agreed to testify.

Last month on September 17, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi summoned Aiwan for the identification parade and the recording of his statement. Sources claim that Aiwan went to Karachi and only met officials of the joint interrogation team instead of going to court. Hyderabad SSP Irfan Baloch, while talking to the media after Aiwan’s funeral, only confirmed that he had been served notices for the identification and to record his statement but did not appear in court.

Baloch did not respond to calls and messages to give his version about the slain policeman’s visit to Karachi or his meetings with the JIT officials.

Aiwan was the complainant in the FIR of the killing of sub-inspector Manoj Kumar Bhatia in December, 2010, allegedly by Minhas and others. Bhatia was investigating the kidnapping and subsequent murder of an engineer, Gareesh Kumar. Minhas was an accused in that case as well, among others.

The Hyderabad police also wanted to interrogate Minhas for the killing of seven policemen in separate attacks in 2014. The CIA inspector, Aslam Langha, was reportedly sent twice to Karachi in late May but he did not get a chance to quiz Minhas.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2015.