KARACHI: Activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir called a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday along with the aged father and sisters of Maqsood, the victim of a fake police encounter, which took place on Sharea Faisal in the early hours of January 20.

“I am here today to urge the caretaker government of Sindh to listen to the cries of these innocent souls who lost their lone breadwinner exactly six months ago during a fake encounter on Sharea Faisal, right outside Pakistan Air Force’s Faisal Base. It is with the help of the media that we were able to reach this far,” Nasir said, while sharing details of the incident.

“After the incident where two thieves were cornered and a rickshaw was attacked by the police there were initial reports coming out that the police had killed a dangerous and armed terrorist. But then it was being said that the people in the rickshaw were innocent victims caught in an encounter with terrorists who were escaping,” he said, adding that six days after the incident there were ministers, including then home minister Sohail Anwar Siyal visiting the poor dead rickshaw passenger Maqsood’s home promising his family, including little 10-year-old sister Benazir, to have the incident investigated.

“But the same day the ministers visited, on Jan 26, when Maqsood’s father went to the Shah Faisal Police Station to lodge his complaint, they refused to accept his application for investigation of the matter. Still, seeing the media present there they took it from him while agreeing to investigate the matter. But no FIR was filed until February 17 after the court ordered the police station to file an FIR. When the CPLC inquired about the CCTV footage from the police they were told that no CCTV footage was available of the incident,” Nasir said.

He said that he wanted to share the “real story” behind the fake encounter.

“The incident took place when the police thought that they could get away with a fake encounter. They cornered two small-time thieves, as big criminals were too difficult to catch, and attacked a rickshaw that was just passing by at the time with illegal weapons. As a result of the attack the rickshaw driver was injured and the passenger Maqsood, a poor tailor master, was killed. Then they captured the two thieves they had cornered saying that the illegal weapons belonged to them while also pinning the attack on them. This is standard of our police. And now that I am telling you this they will say that I am hurting police morale by making up stories,” Nasir said. He claimed that he had proof for every word that he spoke.

“The civil society had been asking for an investigating officer to be assigned to the case for proper investigation and after that was made possible through court orders and the involvement of the CPLC we had DIG Amir Farooqi looking into the matter. He proved that not every policeman is corrupt here when he managed to get the CCTV footage of the entire incident from the PAF base. The FIA also checked the footage saying that it was original without any kind of manipulation,” Nasir pointed out.

“Then we asked for it to be shared with the media and be circulated. We wrote to the then home minister Siyal on March 29,” he said sharing a copy of that letter and its receiving. “We asked the home minister to put the criminals on the exit control list or they will escape. They were threatening Maqsood’s family while pressuring them to forgive them. But nothing was done. We also requested the home minister to run a departmental inquiry since it was the entire Shah Faisal Police Station that had suppressed the CCTV footage and made false cases. Again nothing was done. Even SSP West Zone, the investigating zone, asked East Zone, where the incident happened, for departmental investigation”, which was not conducted Nasir said with regret.

“Now with the government wrapped up and an interim caretaker government in place, we urge Chief Minister Fazl-ur-Rahman to take action. Kindly provide protection to Maqsood’s family. Maqsood was the only son, a brother of five sisters, kindly compensate them. Kindly come up with a reform policy for the police with the help of stakeholders, civil society and NGOs.

“The next hearing of this case is on July 10. There were three policemen and two private gangsters Mohsin Qamar and Asim Hussain Chachar involved in the entire episode. The gangsters are used by the police in such fake encounters as they provide the police with the illegal weapons. Please put these criminals and the other accused on ECL before they run away,” Nasir urged.

“There is also the matter of the two thieves cornered that day. One of them Babar Ali died after a few days from his injuries and Ali Adnan is in jail. But they are thieves not terrorists,” Nasir pointed out.

Meanwhile, Maqsood’s father Sher Mohammad and younger sisters also appealed to the interim government to help them get justice.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2018