GUJRANWALA, June 16: The Anti-Terrorism Court No 1 on Friday continued hearing of the Sialkot jail case while the prosecution quizzed former Kasur DPO Ghulam Muhammad Kalyar in the light of his statement he had recorded in the court. It was stated that the former Kasur DPO was a senior member of an inquiry team of the jail case.

Mr Kalyar confirmed that on the day of occurrence, Sialkot district sessions judge and IGP (prisons) Sarfraz Mufti informed the Gujranwala range DIG and other senior police officers about the Lahore High Court direction that the operation should not be launched without army commandos. But the police started the operation while the accused also opened indiscriminate fire that had resulted in the killing of four judges and injuring many others.

The then Sialkot DCO, he said, had requested the 24 army brigade to provide commandos in the rescue operation in jail, but the demand was not met.

He came clean that former DIG and DPOs of Sialkot and Gujrat besides Elite Force officials were witnesses of the prosecution while their statements were also recorded.

He also admitted that Sialkot jail superintendent Sikander Hayat and other jail officers were arrested and interrogated without prior permission of the department. However, the department was informed after their arrest.

The former DPO verified that DSJ Chaudhry Zafer Hussain and the IGP (prisons) had negotiated with the accused in jail for the release of judges and other officers, but it was not a part of the record.

He denied that two rebels — Muhammad Rafiq and Ijaz Ahmad — were killed after their surrender. He pointed out that when he initiated the investigation some proofs were available about which he had directed SHO Sanaullah to preserve them, but he failed to do so. For this negligence, he said he had not recommended any punitive action against the SHO.

Mr Klayar expressed his ignorance that the court summoned the police officer under section 302 PPC or the prosecution dropped his witness due to defective investigation.

He said that police officers could not be arrested when the court dismissed their bail applications. However, he insisted that the police action was a rescue operation.

The court adjourned the hearing till Saturday (today).