KARACHI, Aug 7: Chief Justice Mushir Alam of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday directed the inspector general of police to provide thumb impressions of all absconding accused across the province to the National Database Registration Authority to track them down.

He also ordered the IGP to submit a list of all absconders in the province.

The chief justice gave these directions while perusing the IGP’s report on police failure to arrest Uzair Jan Baloch, an absconder in the Arshad Pappu murder case.

He directed the IGP to inform the court if the database/thumb impressions of the absconding accused were available with Nadra.

The CJ also directed the police chief to inform the court whether any step to get the national identity cards of the absconders blocked was initiated by the police, further ordering him to immediately initiate the process.

In his report on the police failure to arrest Uzair Jan, the IGP stated that the SHO of the Chakiwara police station was placed under suspension, while the SSP-South was issued an explanation notice.

Besides, the report said that SSP-City was directed to conduct intelligence-based raids for the arrest of the absconder.

On July 25, the CJ had directed the provincial police chief to submit a report as to why Uzair Jan was not arrested by the police when he was accessible to media people publicly.

Uzair Jan, chief of the self-styled Karachi City Alliance that was previously known as the Peoples Amn Committee, was an absconding suspect in the Arshad Pappu murder case and an anti-terrorism court had ordered the police initiate the proceedings to declare him and others proclaimed offender in the case. Uzair Jan hosted an Iftar dinner for journalists in Lyari on the same day when the ATC issued directives to the police. The event was attended by over 500 media persons, belonging to both TV channels and newspapers.

Govt told to set up quick response force authority A division bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam directed the federal and provincial authorities to establish a centralised “Quick Response Force Authority” to combat rising crime of kidnapping for ransom and illegal detention. The bench was seized with the hearing of a case of three missing persons who were picked up by Rangers on Sept 11, 2012 and since then their whereabouts were unknown.

The bench observed that it was a matter of record that gangsters and criminals involved in crimes, including kidnapping for ransom and illegal detention, were operating at national level and even in some of the cases they operated from beyond the territorial limits of the country.

“Such criminals seem to be more organised than the law enforcement agencies”, CJ Alam remarked and added that the challenge posed by criminal needed more extraordinary efforts by all the law-enforcement agencies of all provinces and the federal government.

The court underlined the need of establishing a centralised Quick Response Force Authority to attend such issues with promptitude rather than entering into bureaucratic delay of seeking permissions/sanctions from one or the other provincial/federal agency.

The bench directed the Sindh home secretary and interior and defence secretaries to join hand to establish a centralised focal agency to meet this ever-increasing challenge.

The petitioner, Samra Jan, moved the SHC against the kidnapping/arrest of her grandson, Irfan Uddin and two other relatives — Samiullah and Shaukatullah — on Sept 11, 2012 by the Rangers.

The deputy attorney general assured that he shall ensure that the secretaries of interior and defence coordinated with the Sindh home secretary and home secretaries of other provinces to establish a rapid response force.

The bench directed the provincial law officer to ensure that the home secretary hosted meetings in this regard without any delay.

The court directed the authorities to submit a report on Sept 5 with a concrete mechanism of proposed quick response force.

The petitioner, represented by Advocate Zahooruddin Khan, submitted that her grandson and two relatives were intercepted and arrested by Rangers near Hub Chowki when they along with 14 others were coming to Karachi from Quetta after attending a jirga.

She said that they had shifted to Karachi from Wazirstan due to an army operation and drone attacks.

The investigation officer submitted in his report that the petitioner informed that his relative Muhammed Daud Asad told her that he had received a call from a cellphone which was issued in the name of Saeed Reaheem Khan on his cell number. The caller introduced himself as Zain Shanwari and asked Daud that missing persons would be released on payment of Rs1.5 million.

The IO said that he went to the given address of the subscriber, but it proved incorrect.

He said that another cellular number provided by the petitioner was in the name of Kausar Bibi. The IO said that he got the details of the subscriber whose address was shown at Kot Najeebullah, Haripur.

He said that the home department was moved for permission to proceed to Haripur. He said that on Aug 2 he obtained the photocopy of Kausar Bibi’s national identity card from Nadra, but the address was found to be incorrect.