KARACHI: Police on Tuesday informed an antiterrorism court that they were still clueless about the perpetrators and facilitators of the terrorist attack on the building of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) despite a lapse of over two months.

However, the police said that efforts were under way to identify and track down the facilitators and perpetrators of the June 30 attack on the country’s important trading and business centre in which all the four attackers were shot dead by security personnel.

A police sub-inspector and three security guards were martyred while seven others, including three police officials, were wounded in the attack and subsequent encounter.

Three attackers were identified as Salman, Tasleem Baloch and Siraj Ahmed, but the identity of their fourth accomplice was yet to be determined.

The administrative judge of ATCs has accepted the ‘A-class’ report filed by the IO

The investigating officer of the case submitted this in an ‘A-class’ report filed with the administrative judge of ATCs on Tuesday.

The A-class reports pertain to those cases in which accused persons are unknown or untraceable.

In the report, IO Inspector Chaudhry Arif Hussain of the Counter-Terrorism Department stated that during the course of investigation all-out efforts were made to trace out the facilitators of the attackers and perpetrators of the armed attack.

He mentioned that letters were issued to the relevant departments for the purpose of identification of the four killed attackers, their blood samples were sent for DNA testing and the weapons used by them in the offence were sent for ballistic examination.

He added that a letter was also issued to the authorities concerned with regard to the security plan of South district and to determine genuineness of the claim of the attack by the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).

He added that the mobile phones used by the attackers were also sent to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to check their social media, Instagram and other accounts.

“But, most of the reports are still awaited,” admitted the IO in the report.

In the investigation report, the IO maintained that in the light of the circumstantial and other evidence the offence had been fully proved against killed attackers, but since they were killed in the encounter with the law enforcers, therefore, the case could not proceed against them. The IO mentioned that the stipulated time of investigation had lapsed, therefore, the investigation report under Section 173 of the criminal procedure code was being filed with the court.

The IO requested the administrative judge to accept the A-class report, adding that legal action would be taken against the unknown facilitators and perpetrators of the attack, “if they were arrested in future”.

The judge accepted the A-class report and transferred the case to the ATC-XVI for disposal.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 102 (commencement and continuance of the right of private defence of the body), 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 23(1)-A of the Sindh Arms Act, 2013 read with the Section 6-2(I) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and Explosives Act, 1908 on behalf of the state at the CTD police station.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2020