KARACHI: The investigation officer of the case against former chief of the Karachi Central Prison and his two deputies pertaining to the escape of two suspected militants on Friday informed the Sindh High Court that the case of prosecution would badly suffer if the bail granted to the jail officials by an antiterrorism court was not cancelled.

The prosecution had on Wednesday moved the SHC against the decision of the ATC-VIII to grant bail to former jail superintendent Ghulam Murtaza Shaikh, deputy superintendent Faheem Anwar Memon and assistant superintendent Abdul Rehman Shaikh in a case against them for allegedly facilitating the suspected terrorists in their escape from the heavily-guarded penitentiary.

The department in its appeal said that the escape of ‘hardcore terrorists’ from the heavily-guarded prison was a very serious issue. It said that the escape of alleged terrorists from the prison could not be overlooked or ignored.

The IO of the case disputes contents of ATC’s bail order

It asked the court to cancel the bail granted to the accused persons.

The three jail officials along with 12 other personnel had been arrested for their negligence in the escape of the two suspected militants belonging to the outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi — Shaikh Mumtaz alias Firaun alias Sher Khan and Mohammad Ahmed Khan alias Munna — from prison on June 13.

The three officials, through their counsel, had moved bail applications and after hearing arguments from both sides, the judge of the ATC-VIII had granted them bail against a surety bond of Rs100,000 each.

On Friday, the investigation officer of the case, DSP Zahid Hussain, filed an affidavit in the SHC stating that the prosecution would badly suffer if the bail granted to the jail officials was not revoked.

He also disputed the contents of the ATC’s order and stated that the observations made in the order were wrongly attributed to him.

One of the paragraphs of the ATC’s order reads: “The IO admitted that he could not find all the three above named applicants/accused in any kind of abetment, conspiracy and connivance with those two escapees, except that they did not perform their duties diligently with utmost ... caution. ...”

He said that he did not state before the ATC that he could not find the abetment, conspiracy and connivance of the jail officials with the escapees.

The IO said: “On the other hand, I stated that prima facie evidence was available against the three jail officials for their connivance in the escape.”

He stated in the affidavit that he told the ATC judge that the whole jail staff had created an enabling environment of illegality. “By virtue of implication those on bail are prima facie abettors who facilitated the escape which is also mentioned in the case diaries,” the IO added.

DSP Hussain also said that despite his repeated request the custody of the jail officials was not allowed for a single time for interrogation and investigation, which frustrated the object of investigation.

He said that he appeared at least six times before the court of ADJ-VII East, Karachi, administrative judge of the ATCs and ATC-VIII.

“During my appearance, I not only requested for custody [of the accused jail officials] but also opposed the bail applications of the accused jail officials from 17-6-2017 to 18-7-2017”, he added.

The hardcore militants had escaped from the judicial complex inside the central prison where they had been brought by jail officials allegedly in connection with the hearing of some cases.

Arrested in 2013, the suspects were allegedly involved in the targeted killing of more than 60 police officials, political party workers and Shia community members. They belonged to the Qasim Rasheed group of the banned militant outfit, LJ.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2017