KASUR: Police arrested on Tuesday inspector Riaz Abbas in connection with the killing of Mudassar in a police encounter on Feb 24, 2017.

Police had taken away the 21-year-old man on the allegation of raping and killing a minor girl of the Ali Park locality, and later killed him in an encounter the same day.

Jamila Bibi, mother of deceased Mudassar, had submitted a writ petition for the registration of a case against police officials.

On Tuesday, Additional District and Session’s Court Judge Zafar Iqbal sought comments from the Sadar Police as to why it was reluctant to register the case.

The police responded that a joint investigation team (JIT), set up on the direction of the Supreme Court, had already taken up the matter and the JIT would submit its report to the court in two weeks.

Police said that a three-member JIT, consisting of Deputy Inspector General Sohail Akhtar, Superintendent of Police (SP) Chaudhry Liaqat Ali, and Deputy SP Hamid Husain Bajwa was constituted on Jan 26 by Additional Inspector General Abubakar Khuda Bakhsh.

When asked to show the orders of the Supreme Court regarding the JIT, police failed to do so in two hours. The court adjourned the case till Feb, 01.

The petitioner prayed that her son Mudassar was innocent but was killed by police to hide its failure to arrest the actual culprit.

The case of Mudassar attracted media and court attention when a suspect arrested in the rape and murder case of a eight-year-old girl whose body was found on Jan 9, was stated to be the killer of the girl whose body was found on Feb 24.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2018