05 October 2004	Tuesday	19 Shaban 1425

LAHORE, Oct 4: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday reserved the judgment after concluding the hearing of a writ petition seeking the cancellation of pre-arrest bails of DIG Malik Iqbal and 16 others in the Sialkot Jail case.

The petition was filed by the then Sialkot senior civil judge Mohammad Yusuf who contended that the incident was a murder in cold blood of four civil judges and five criminals during indiscriminate firing by police on July 25, 2003.

The bail was granted to the DIG, the then Sialkot DPO Amjad Javed Saleemi, Gujrat DPO Raja Munawar Husain, two doctors Mohammad Firdaus and Sajid Husain and 12 Elite Force personnel.

Four civil judges Sagheer Anwar, Syed Shehryar Bokhari, Asif Mumtaz Cheema and Shahid Munir Ranjha were killed when a police team, headed by DIG Malik Iqbal, started firing to rescue them and eight others taken hostage by some criminals for the acceptance of their demands.

They were granted pre-arrest bail by a Gujranwala anti-terrorism court. The decision was challenged on the ground that the bail in the case of the murder of nine people was illegal.

The bench reserved the judgment after hearing additional advocate-general Hanif Khatana who submitted that the operation to rescue the hostage judicial officers was rash and could be avoided, particularly when the hostages were persuading criminals to let them go and they were about to succeed in their effort.

He deposed before the court that the material available on record suggested that the decision of the anti-terrorist court of Gujranwala of granting pre-arrest bail was wrapped with a major illegality.

Referring to a directive by the chief justice of the Lahore High Court, he submitted that the police force, headed by the DIG, failed to abide by that and resorted to firing which killed nine people.

He submitted that the five-member team of senior police officers gave an honest finding in its report which held the DIG and the two DPOs responsible for an operation which was done in panic and haste.

The report said there was no justification for the operation particularly in a situation when there were indications that eight judicial officers taken hostages and the captors were about to reach an understanding through sufficient persuasive work.

The AAG submitted that the police investigation team, headed by DIG Tariq Salim Dogar, also found that all the five hardened criminals were prepared to surrender but they were killed by police firing. Two of them were killed when they were coming out of the barrack with their hands on their heads. They were shot dead after their identification by the police.

Mr Khatana submitted that enough material was, however, not available about the two doctors of the Allama Iqbal Memorial Hospital if they connived in the incident. The only evidence against the doctors was that they did not make sufficient arrangements for the injured.