DAWN/The News International, KARACHI
12 March 1999, Friday, 23 Ziqa'ad 1419
KARACHI: Another activist of Muttahida Qaumi Movement was killed in highly mysterious circumstances on Thursday, putting the death toll of alleged 'extrajudicial killings' during the past three days at three.
This was the 10th controversial death of an under-custody accused following the governor's rule. Earlier, nine political workers, eight of Muttahida and one of Peoples Party (Shaheed Bhutto) became victims of the 'extrajudicial killings'. Jamil, an under-custody activist of Muttahida, succumbed at the Urology Ward of Civil Hospital.
Sources in police told The News that Jamil Ahmed Khan, a 28-year-old resident of Green Town, Shah Faisal Colony, and a Linesman of Pakistan TeleCommunications Limited (PTCL), was an activist of Muttahida's Labour Division, PTCL Unit. He was also a leading member of "Speech Committee" of Altaf Hussain and often the telephonic speeches of Altaf Hussain were aired directly under his supervision.
On February 23, when he was about to go to Lahore to arrange the speech of the party chief to the Lahore High Court Bar, he was arrested vide FIR No: 85/99 under section 324/353, CrPC, by SHO Azizabad, Ghzanfar Kazmi. Later, Jamil, was produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate Central 1, Javed Awan. The magistrate remanded him to police remand for two days. He was scheduled to be produced again before the same court for next hearing on February 28, but he was produced before the court on March 2. This time, he was sent to jail.
Jail sources said that on March 10, he complained of pain and when his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to the jail hospital where after his check-up, doctors advised the authorities to shift him to the Civil Hospital. On reaching there, he was admitted to the Urology Ward where doctors suspected that his kidneys had failed. "He was sent to our Ward at around midnight and after a 12-hour battle for life, he breathed his last at around 6:40 am," said a sources from the ward.
Medico-Legal Officers (MLOs) who conducted the postmortem reserved the cause of death and sent his viscera for chemical examinations. Sources at the hospital, who had seen the body, however, claimed that they found some marks of injections visible on the body.
Jamil's Namaz-e-Janaza was offered near his house and he was buried at Azeempura graveyard. The deceased was unmarried and had five brothers and three sisters. He was the eldest and the only bread earner of his entire family. He was an employee of the PTCL and was posted at CTH Exchange, I I Chundrigar Road.
A younger brother of the deceased, while talking to The News, levelled serious charges against police. He said that after Jamil's arrest the family contacted the police but failed to find any clue. Later, it transpired that the deceased was presented before the court of Judicial Magistrate where he complained that he was being subjected to brutal torture. His further alleged that police had kept Jamil on some injections because of which he had lost his senses. He also complained that police subjected him to "Cheera", the worst form of torture during interrogation.
According to Jamil's family members, his parents were not allowed to meet him in jail and the authorities had told them that he was ailing and shifted to a hospital. Finally, the family members traced out that he was admitted to the Civil Hospital. They went to the Civil Hospital where their son was breathing his last. He was totally out of his senses and could not identify his parents.
When the parents contacted doctors, they expressed the hope that Jamil would survive and by morning he would recover. But he died in the morning. "My brother was poisoned by police. It is a cold-blooded murder and police have snatched our only bread earner."
SHC recommends action against ATC judge for delivering erroneous death penalty verdictKARACHI: The ruling PML(N) on Thursday was forced to eat humble pie when its former president from district Larkana admitted before a bench of Sindh High Court that as an ATC judge he flouted the law in the trial of two accused in the Binnori Town case and awarded them capital punishment.
Presiding officer of special Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) Karachi, Hakim Ali Abbasi, who for several years had been the president PML(N) Larkana District, admitted he committed serious transgressions of procedural code while trying Salim Jaffari and Tanveer Abbas Rizvi for murder. When their appeal against the death penalty came up for hearing before the division bench, their counsel drew attention to the trial court's case file.
The two counsels, Nasir Jaffari and Waqar Naqvi, pointed out that the verdict for death penalty neither had any date nor did all the pages bear the signature of the presiding officers as required by law. Also missing from the case file was the certification of the prosecution witnesses as having recorded their statements before the court and that they were in their senses and fully conversant with the language in which they were asked questions by the lawyers and the court.
During the scrutiny, the appellate judges, Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar and Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro, found that the statements of prosecution witnesses and other exhibits were not numbered. Most statements of the prosecution witnesses were handwritten by the presiding judge himself but did not bear his signature.
The most horrifying aspect that emerged was that the court declared the appellants to be proclaimed offenders and advertisements to that effect were published in national dailies at the very time they were stated to be in custody.
After finding these serious defects in the trial court's file, the appellate bench summoned Hakim Ali Abbasi and Advocate General (AG) Sindh Iqbal Raad. While the presiding judge of the ATC admitted all faults, he offered no reasons for the same.
Considering these circumstances, the SHC set aside the conviction order of the ATC, ordered retrial of the accused and directed the federal government to take strict action against the presiding judge. Salim Jaffari and Tanveer Abbas Naqvi along with Raza Rizvi were booked for murder of Dr Habibullah Mukhtar, Mufti Abdul Sami and their driver Tahir who were gunned down near Binnori Town Madrasah in Jamshed Quarters in April '98.
Speaking later to the press, the AG Sindh said the presiding judge had committed "mistakes" under tremendous pressure. "He told me he had been receiving phone calls threatening that he would be killed if he did not award the death penalty to the accused," said the AG. However, some lawyers on condition of anonymity told The News that Hakim Ali Abbasi had been appointed presiding judge of ATC Karachi only because of his political affiliation.
Many members of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) said once again it was proved that all courts, especially those dispensing criminal justice, should be under the superior judiciary instead of the executive to prevent such political appointments Senior lawyers saw Thursday's development as a humbling of the rulers who since assuming power, they said, had created special courts under executive control as their only solution to terrorism.
Bandits kill one, injure two; 15 vehicles snatchedKARACHI: Bandits killed a young boy, injured his father and two brothers on their resistance in Manghopir on Thursday. They also looted cash, jewellery, electrical appliances and snatched 15 vehicles.
Four armed men, barging into one Eshanullah's residence at Ishrat Town in Mangopir police limits, locked Eahan and his sons Samiullah and Inamullah in a room. As they were about to leave collecting cash, jewellery and other valuables, Ehsan and his sons resisted them at which the bandits opened fire and injured them.
Hearing the fire Eshan's another son, Inayatullah, 20, came down from upstairs where he was sleeping. He brought his rifle and fired at the bandits injuring one of them but another bandit opened fire and fled. Area people took the injured to Civil Hospital, however, Inayatullah succumbed to his wounds on the way.
In other incidents bandits looted cash, jewellery and electrical appliances from Hafiz Ahmad's house in Civil Lines; cash, jewellery, prize bonds and other valuables from Aftab Ameen's house in Nazimabad; cash, jewellery and electrical appliances from Ghulam Mustafa's residence in Model Colony; cash, jewellery and valuables from Muhammad Afzal's house in Airport; Rs200,000 and jewellery from a house in Gulisna-e-Jauhar and cash, prize bonds, jewellery and other valuables from another housein Darakhshan. The carjackers snatched five cars, two Suzuki pick-ups and eight motorcycles from different parts of the city.
Three held on robbery chargesKARACHI: The Anti Terrorist Wing (ATW) on Thursday arrested three people in connection with the biggest robbery case in Saddar in 1992. Police claimed to have recovered two TT pistols from them. Police received an information that some people who were involved in snatching watches worth Rs 15,000,000 from Olympia Watches in Saddar in 1992, were hiding at Bilal Colony in Landhi. The mobile van of ATW raided the hideout and arrested three suspects Abdul Mamdood Khan, Pervaiz Khan and Abdul Jabbar.
Six MQM men arrestedSUKKUR: The Sukkur police in an operation early Wednesday morning arrested around 30 workers and office bearers of the MQM (Mutahidda) from Old Sukkur, Jinnah Chowk and Gharibabad. Later, most of them were released.
MQM senator accuses president of partiality