ISLAMABAD: Police have informed a sessions court that they have cancelled a case against journalist and TV anchor Hamid Mir pertaining to the kidnapping of Khalid Khwaja, a former intelligence officer, since they have no evidence about the latter’s abduction.

The bullet-riddled body of former intelligence officer Khwaja was found in North Waziristan on April 30, 2010.

His widow, Shamama, filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court seeking registration of a criminal case against journalist Hamid Mir, as she alleged that he along with a Taliban militant, Usman Punjabi, had abducted her spouse from Islamabad.

On the IHC orders, a case was registered at the Ramna police station on Nov 4 against Mr Mir.

Sources told Dawn on Friday that investigators approached a politician from Kohat and recorded his statement in connection with the case.

They said that the investigators did not find sufficient evidence to proceed further and they recommended to the District and Sessions Court in Islamabad to cancel the case.

They said that the police informed the court that the offence of the kidnapping could not be established during the investigation since the politician said that Khawaja roamed freely in the area.

The sources said he was neither murdered within the jurisdiction of the Ramna police station nor any autopsy was performed, the police said, adding that there was no medico-legal certificate which was necessary to register a murder case.

Ramna SHO Inspector Irshad Abro confirmed that the case was cancelled and a report in this regard submitted in court.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017