KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court remanded on Monday a policeman in police custody in a case pertaining to a shootout between two police parties.

A policeman was killed and another wounded in Khamisa Goth when a police party of the North Karachi Industrial Area police station and another party posted at the office of an SP exchanged fire in December last year.

The police said head constable Liaquat Ali was arrested on Sept 13 and produced before the court for remand. The judge of the anti-terrorism court-II handed the suspect over to police on a three-day physical remand.

According to the prosecution, under a directive of the SP, a police party raided Khamisa Goth in New Karachi on Dec 3 to trace criminals, but the party of the area police station fired upon the raiding party, which returned fire and the shootout left constable Tasawar Iqbal dead and constable Qurban Jilani wounded.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of a head constable of the SP office against a suspended and three serving policemen of the North Karachi Industrial Area police station. Constable Habib Shah was already in custody.

Initially the case was in a regular court, but it was transferred to the anti-terrorism court in June when a magistrate ruled that there might be many aspects of the case, including a dispute over collection of protection money, and observed that two police parties under the command of the same superintendent of the New Karachi police and within the same jurisdiction had exchanged fire, raising questions about the poor administration and creating a sense of insecurity in society.

Contempt notice for IO

The same court issued on Monday a contempt of court notice to an investigating officer in a case pertaining to the kidnapping and murder of a schoolgirl.

The 13-year-old was taken away from her school in F. B Area in September last year and her body was found on the Seaview beach a couple of days after her abduction.

A female cousin of the deceased, her husband and their two male accomplices have been booked in the case, but the police left out a Quetta-based man, who was initially believed to be the main suspect. In the final investigation report, the police claimed that he was in love with the victim.

On a previous hearing, the court had issued a show-cause notice to IO Haider Ali Shah for his absence. However, he remained absent on Monday also and the court issued a contempt notice under Section 37 of the Anti-Terrorism Act to the IO till Sept 24.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014