KARACHI: After 20 months since the attack on a Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker, police filed a report before the administrative judge of antiterrorism courts on Wednesday stating that they were still clueless about the attackers, observing there was no possibility to trace them in near future.

Member of the National Assembly Rashid Godil of the MQM was critically wounded after unidentified armed men opened fire at his vehicle near his residence in Bahadurabad in August 2015. His wife remained unhurt while their driver Abdul Mateen was killed in the attack.

The investigation officer of the case, Inspector Mohammad Fariduddin, submitted an interim investigation report, commonly known as A-class report, before the administrative judge stating that it would be useless to keep the investigation of the case pending since the MNA did not name anybody in his statement and arrest of the accused could not be made even in near future.

According to the report, complainant Saleem stated that his sister Sadia and her husband Mr Godil, along with their driver, were returning to their house in Bahadurabad on Aug 19, 2015 in their car. When they reached near Qurtaba Market unknown men riding a motorcycle opened fire at the vehicle and fled.

The IO said in the report that besides other witnesses, the statement of the MQM leader was also recorded on Sept 11, 2015 at a hospital in which he did not raise suspicion about anyone.

The report said that the CCTV footage of the incident was obtained and a forensic analysis of the spent bullet casings found from the crime scene and the car was conducted at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).

However, the IO stated that despite using all available resources the whereabouts of assailants remained unknown.

He added that the case was registered around 20 months ago and requested the court to accept the report in order to close the investigation of the case as there was hardly any chance to locate the accused in future.

The IO did not mention any detail in the report regarding the statement of Mr Godil’s wife, an eyewitness in the case.

The administrative judge sent the investigation report to ATC-VIII and directed the trial court to call an explanation from the IO for filing the report after an inordinate delay and pass an appropriate order in accordance with law.

It may be recalled that after the incident, police claimed that the case was being investigated on modern lines, including forensic examination of Mr Godil’s car and “geo-fencing” of the area was also carried out in order to trace the culprits.

The FIR was lodged under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the New Town police station.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2017