KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday issued notices to the chief secretary, home secretary, director general of Sindh Rangers and others on a petition seeking a judicial probe into the Sept 28 killings of four villagers in Sakrand.

Three lawyers — Tahmasp Rasheed Razvi, Zulfiqar Ali Jalbani and Aaquib Rajpar — filed a petition before the SHC, stating that there were many sides to the incident, including media reports and statements from both sides, which were contradictory and created doubts.

Representing the petitioners, senior counsel Salahuddin Ahmed and Syed Haider Imam Rizvi argued that in order to harass the villagers and save their skin, the law enforcement agencies have lodged two FIRs in violation of the apex court’s judgement handed down in the case of Sughra Bibi versus the state (PLD 2018 SC 595).

They further submitted that four innocent men were killed and nine others were injured, including women of the village of Mari Jalbani, in the raid carried out on Sept 28, while the law enforcement agencies had allegedly taken away relatives of aggrieved families and local villagers, and their whereabouts were not known.

They pleaded for the constitution of a judicial commission, to be headed by a judge of the high court, to investigate the incident and recover the missing/detained villagers.

After a preliminary hearing, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, issued notice and stated in the order: “Subject to the maintainability of the petition, let notices be issued against the respondents, Attorney General (AG), Prosecutor General (PG), as well as Deputy Attorney General (DAG), for October 12, 2023.”

The Mari Jalbani police had lodged two FIRs in the case. The first FIR was lodged on the complaint of a brother of one of the slain villagers against unidentified law enforcers under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The second FIR was lodged by the state through a police FIR against many villagers under various sections of the PPC and the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023