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KARACHI, May 14: Justice M. Ashraf Laghari of the Sindh High Court issued notices for May 19 in a petition seeking prosecution of a police official for raping a girl after freeing her from her kidnappers.
Petitioner Amanat Ali submitted through Advocate Zia Ahmed Awan that his 17-year-old daughter was kidnapped by Mohammad Sadiq and another person on Dec 8, 2002.
An FIR was registered by Al-Falah police station two days later and investigation was entrusted to sub-inspector Basharat Ali. The SI recovered Naila from Nawabshah on Dec 16 and brought her to Karachi the same day. However, instead of handing her over to policewomen, he forced her to stay overnight at the Al-Falah police station.
In her statement before a judicial magistrate the next day, Naila alleged that she was raped twice by the SI at the police station.
The case was transferred to another police official and Basharat, who fled the court after Naila’s disclosure on Dec 17, was placed under suspension. A departmental inquiry was also ordered but nothing was known about its findings.
His efforts to have a case registered against the SI have also failed.
Citing the IGP and other officers of the police as respondents, he prayed to the court to order a departmental action and registration of a case against the SI.
PLEA ADMITTED: A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday allowed appeals by four convicts against their conviction and death sentences for multiple murders in the Jamia Farooqia van ambush case.
The incident occurred in January 2001 when a group of snipers ambushed a van carrying teachers and students of the Jamia Farooqia, Shah Faisal Colony.
Maulana Inayatullah Khan, Maulana Hameedur Rahman and Maulana Mufti Mohammad Iqbal, student Talha Iqbal and driver Abdul Hameed were killed in the firing.
Syed Qaiser Raza, Syed Saim Ali, Ali Raza and Kazim Zaidi were tried by an anti-terrorist court and sentenced to death for the killings and fined Rs200,000 each under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
They were sentenced to serve jail terms and pay fines under Sections 324 and 148 of the PPC. They were also convicted under Section 13 of the Arms Ordinance. They challenged the ATC judgment before the high court.
The division bench, which consisted of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Rehmat Hussain Jaferi, set aside their conviction and sentences under the PPC, but rejected their appeals against conviction under the Arms Ordinance.
The bench also ordered issuance of notices in appeals by Hasan Akhtar and Rizwan, who were tried and convicted in absentia. No appeals have been preferred by Kashif Abbas, Ali Mustahsan and Rashid, who were also declared absconders.
Arguing for the appellants, Advocates I. A. Hashmi and Sabir Haider submitted that there was no independent witness or corroborative evidence in the case. Both the eyewitnesses belonged to Jamia Farooqia and were partisan. The prosecution failed to produce “natural” witnesses.
For instance, a student and a police constable travelling in the ambushed van were not examined. Ramzan, another constable who was disarmed and injured in the attack, and Javed Bangash, yet another constable who shifted the injured to the JPMC, were also left out. No eyewitness from the place of occurrence was produced.
The counsel informed the bench that investigation officer Kamran Khan himself applied for discharge of accused Ali Raza and Kazim Zaidi as no evidence was available against them.
Assistant Advocate-General Habib Ahmed submitted that accused Qaisar Raza and Saim Ali confessed their involvement in the ambush.
They were caught by passersby and handed to the police after a failed attempt on the life of Maulana Allah Wasaya at Korangi. Accused Qaiser led to the recovery of a firearm used in the attack. No witness could be produced from the scene of occurrence because of rioting that followed, the AAG said. He conceded that the complainant’s failure to name eyewitnesses was an “omission”.
