HYDERABAD: The Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by former SHO of the Bhitai Nagar police station (currently posted as Khipro SHO) challenging a lower court’s order for the registration of FIR against him in an alleged extrajudicial killing case.

A division bench comprising Justice Abdul Maalik Gaddi and Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon dismissed the petition for non-prosecution.

In 2015, SHO Imdad Talpur had obtained an interim order from the high court suspending operation of the Hyderabad sessions court’s directive issued on Oct 27, 2015. The sessions court had ordered registration of FIR against him and other accused, including then CIA in-charge Aslam Langah, for alleged extrajudicial killing of a Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) activist, Niaz Khaskheli.

The victim’s wife, Sajida Khaskheli, had filed the application in the sessions court.

Imdad Talpur had challenged the Oct 27, 2015 order whereby the additional district and sessions judge-II, Hyderabad, had directed the Bhitai Nagar police to record statement of Sajida Khaskheli verbatim and register an FIR, if a cognizable case was made out in her statement. The SHO then challenged the order in the high court on Nov 3, 2015 and got its operation suspended.

In her application, Sajida Khaskheli had stated that her husband was picked up at 8.30pm on Oct 9, 2015 from the couple’s house by Aslam Langah, Imdad Talpur, then SHO of Naseem Nagar police station ASI Saifur Rehman Sehto, head constable Ghulam Abbasi, constable Gulsher and other personnel, who took him to the CIA Centre. She said she had filed an application against his wrongful confinement the next day. Later, she added, she learnt through her brother-in-law that her husband was murdered by the accused.

Imdad Talpur submitted in high court that three armed men riding a motorcycle had opened fire on a Bhitai Nagar police team on Jamshoro Road. The police returned fire wounding Niaz Khaskheli, who died while being taken to a hospital, he claimed.

The police also claimed that Niaz Khaskheli was involved in 21 criminal cases and his brother, Irshad Khaskheli, in 16 criminal cases.

On Tuesday, the bench observed that Imdad Talpur’s petition was filed on Nov 3, 2015 but since then neither petitioner nor his counsel pursued it. It dismissed the petition, along with the listed applications, for non-prosecution.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2020