ISLAMABAD: Almost every institution expressed inability to identify the abductors of senior journalist Matiullah Jan, revealed a report submitted to the Supreme Court.

According to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report, the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Islamabad police and even the multi-billion dollars Safe City project management remained unable to detect the vehicles and persons involved in the journalist’s abduction in July.

As per the report, Nadra’s system did not identify even a single suspect despite the fact that five of them were not wearing face mask. Nadra claimed that the abductors’ faces were not as clear in CCTV footage as its system required to identify them.

The FIA claimed that it could not forensically trace the identification, while the Safe City management stated that the area from where the journalist had been abducted was out of its coverage.

The police said they lacked capacity to conduct geo-fencing and sought help from the IB and ISI. IB officials visited the crime-scene and collected data, the report stated, adding that they gathered data of over 120,000 mobile phones and further scrutiny was under way.

The report said police were vigorously after one Zarak Khan as mentioned by the journalist while recording his statement, though that could be a cover name of one of the abductors. It said Nadra’s system identified 1,236 people of this name in 21 districts. Of them, physical verification of 425 people had been completed, the report said, adding that all-out efforts had been made to find the abductors.

The Supreme Court has fixed Oct 28 for hearing of the contempt of court case against Matiullah Jan. The report on his abduction would also be taken up on the same date.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2020