ISLAMABAD: A month after Constitution Avenue witnessed some of the worst clashes between police and protesters that the capital has ever seen, police are no closer to establishing who was responsible for the mayhem that led to the deaths of at least four protesters on the night of August 30.

Police insiders tell Dawn that officers were desperately trying to ascertain who gave the order to use teargas and rubber bullets against advancing protesters, who were trying to make their way to the Prime Minister’s House when the melee began.

“There is no trace of the authority in the records of the police and the capital administration. No one knows who gave the order to use teargas shells and rubber bullets against the protestors or to intercept them while they were marching towards PM House,” officials close to the investigation said.

An ordered issued from the office of the senior superintendent of police (SSP) on August 27 by then-SSP Mohammad Ali Nekokara orders all SPs not to use force against the protestors, sources said, adding that the order was issued after a meeting between SSP Nekokara and interior secretary, held on August 26 where the officer was assured by the bureaucrat that the use of force will not be required.

The assistant commissioner also issued a similar order on August 30.

The use of force was ordered soon after protesters removed the containers blocking the road that led to the Presidency and the Cabinet Division.

Metal object pulled from one of the deceased positively identified as 9mm bullet

Some marchers tried to enter these buildings, the officials said, adding that, “At that time, the deputy commissioner was in a control room established inside Parliament House along with an unidentified army officer and the-then inspector general.”

According to the insiders, the violence began quite suddenly. The shelling started just as the first clashes broke out and protesters were targeted from inside the Parliament House and Cabinet Division buildings, where the IGP stood, sources said.

A few Islamabad police officers who had entered the Cabinet Division compound while strafing protesters were also briefly apprehended by the army, which was responsible for the security of these sensitive buildings.

“They were asked who gave the order to use teargas on protesters, but they did not have an answer,” they said, adding that around this time, the IG was surrounded by a contingent of police who were firing shells and rubber bullets at the protestors to disperse them and push them back towards D-Chowk.

When asked for comment, Inspector General Tahir Alam Khan told Dawn, “The administration had ordered that the crowd be dispersed and police implemented the orders.”

When asked about the absence of a record of the order to use force, he said this was not an issue the investigators should be worried about.

Moreover, a metallic object recovered from the body of one of the four people killed during the clashes on August 30 was identified as a bullet from a 9mm handgun, officials close to the investigation told Dawn.

The object had been ruled ‘probably a bullet’ by doctors and was sent for forensic tests. The tests revealed that it was almost certainly a bullet from a 9mm handgun.

Except for senior officers, almost none of the policemen on duty at Constitution Avenue that night were issued 9mm handguns.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd , 2014