ISLAMABAD: City lawyer Zaheer Ahmed Gondal, missing for almost 18 months, had links with terrorist organisations and currently is in North Waziristan, the Rawalpindi police reported to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

“Therefore the case of Zaheer Gondal does not fall in the category of enforced disappearance,” said the report submitted to the apex court on behalf of City Police Officer (CPO) Humayun Bashir Tarar.

Zaheer Gondal’s case cropped up during a suo motu hearing in the Supreme Court of the March 3 terrorist attack on district courts complex in F-8 sector of Islamabad this year in which 11 people including an additional sessions judge were killed.

After receiving the police report, Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, heading the three-judge bench seized with the issue, separated the case of Zaheer Gondal and set it for hearing on Jan 13, 2015.

Zaheer Gondal’s alleged kidnapping by unidentified persons from Rawalpindi in July 2013 had also come up before a bench headed by the former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in October 2013 when the Punjab government had told the court that the cellular data recovery (CDR) of the missing person led the police to a safe house owned by the ISI.

In the report the police explained that the ground check of the missing lawyer and his family history revealed that he, and his brother Tanveer Gondal, had links with terrorist organisations.

Police yet to confirm the report independently

They were also involved in planning the suicide attack on former President retired Gen Pervez Musharraf on the day the Anti Terrorists Court (ATC) Rawalpindi had to hear his bail petition in June 2013.

New information revealed to the police by suspected terrorist Hammad Adil from Bhara Kahu divulged everything, according to the report submitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Hammad Adil was allegedly involved in the assassination of FIA prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfikar Ahmed who was investigating the Benazir Bhutto murder case.

Unidentified gunmen shot him dead outside his house in Islamabad on May 3, 2013.

That was the day a bail petition of Gen Musharraf, a nominated accused in the Benazir assassination case, was fixed for hearing before ATC.

In addition, the police report claimed that Tanveer Gondal was believed to be the mastermind of many other suicide attacks in Islamabad and the Punjab, including those on Luna Caprice Restaurant, Marriott Hotel, the Danish embassy, Nato shipping containers, Pervez Musharraf and slain cabinet minister Shahbaz Bhatti.

Zaheer Gondal disappeared during the period law enforcement agencies were cracking down hard on all associates of Hammad Adil and Tanveer Gondal, the report stated. It was also possible that Zaheer Gondal went underground on his own.

Police also probed the allegation that Zaheer Gondal was picked up by ISI and kept in a safe house in Sector I-9/2 of Islamabad. The Rawalpindi police supervised the search of the premises but found no proof to support the allegation, which was based on the last location of a SIM owned and used by Zaheer Gondal. The ISI was taken on board and joined the loop of investigation process, said the police report.

Later some intelligence agencies source revealed the presence of Zaheer Gondal at a training camp of the Punjabi Taliban, having alliance with the Al-Qaeda group of Ahmed Farooq, in Miramshah, the police report claimed.

A local source of the area was cultivated and tasked to verify the information independently. But a link could not be established with the source as yet due to the ongoing targeted military operation in the area. Local authorities have also been requested to assist in gaining access to Zaheer Gondal. The chief secretary and the home department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the additional chief secretary of Fata have also been approached and reminded to confirm the presence of Zaheer Gondal in Waziristan and help trace him out but till date no positive response has been received, added the police report.

A detailed meeting was also held with the counterparts of the intelligence agencies to discuss and share any new information about the current location of Zaheer Gondal during which it transpired that Zaheer Gondal left for Waziristan in July 2013 after the arrest of Umar Abdullah for involvement in the assassination of Chaudhry Zulfiqar, the report said.

Published in Dawn December 11th, 2014