ISLAMABAD, Jan 8: The one-man commission constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the 2007 Lal Masjid operation has completed the recording of statements of male witnesses.

It will start recording the statements of women witnesses on Wednesday.

Headed by Justice Shezado Sheikh of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), the commission started registration of volunteer witnesses on December 19 and by December 26 had registered 294 witnesses — 146 men and 148 women.

The commission will record the statements of the volunteer witnesses till January 12 after which it would summon the inquiry witnesses or officials who had any connection with the operation.

Out of the 146 male volunteer witnesses, the statements of about 120 were recorded while the remaining did not appear before the commission.

The witnesses who recorded their statements with the commission included Maulana Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric of Lal Masjid; Umme Hassan, principal of Jamia Hafsa, the administrators of Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia, clerics who were in touch with Maulana Aziz before and after the operation and a number of heirs of students who either died or went missing during the operation.

The commission has summoned 30 women witnesses for recording of their statements on Wednesday (today).

According to the documents related to the probe, the commission is looking into “the causes of the incident.” It will point out whether any action was taken under the law against the persons who were found responsible for the incident.—Malik Asad