KARACHI, July 12: Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, the permit-holder for Eid-i-Milad function at Nishtar Park, is not boycotting the inquiry proceedings to evade liability for damage to public and private property caused by the participants of the April 11 gathering, Pakistan Sunni Movement leader Shah Sirajul Haq Qadri said on Wednesday.

Replying to Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan’s questions during his cross-examination, the witness agreed that there was a stipulation in the permission given for the April 11 public meeting that the organizers would be responsible and liable to pay damages for any loss caused to public or private property by the participants. Shah Siraj, who is the son of Jamaat Ahle Sunnat Amir Shah Turabul Haq Qadri, denied that Sunni Tehrik workers raised slogans against the Jamaat after the explosion.

He said he did not know whether the rioters tried to storm an Imambargah and a senator’s house near Nishtar Park. When the AAG said the rioters went on a rampage, torched a large number of vehicles and petrol pumps and also damaged the police control at the park, the PSM counsel took exception to the use of word ‘rioters’ for the enraged workers of the organizing committee. The tribunal pointed out to the counsel that he would be implicating the volunteers of his own client if he insisted on their identity.

The witness denied that he did not inform the organizers and the home minister of the warning of bloodshed received over the telephone by Tariq Mahboob of an allied organization. However, he agreed that there was no mention of the warning in the FIR of the incident lodged by Altaf Qadri. The warning was also not mentioned in the statements recorded by him or Tariq Mahboob under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

He said while on his way from his Shahrea Faisal residence to Memon Masjid via Hotel Metropole and Chundrigar Road on April 11 afternoon, he felt that police contingents were not posted in sufficient numbers. He replied in the negative

when asked whether he informed the CCPO or the TPO or Madadgar of inadequate security. He said the mob raised slogans against police after the blast and his own guards came under attack.

At the Liaquat National Hospital he found that hospital employees, including doctors, were manhandled by the mob. But he denied that he and Shah Turabul Haq Qadri called off their visit to other hospitals, including the Civil Hospital, because of rioting there. He said he and his father had to be present at their madrassah, Darul UIoom Amjadia, to receive bodies and injured victims. The cross-examination would continue on Thursday.