KARACHI, March 17 The Sindh High Court on Wednesday ordered appointment of a third police officer to investigate the killing of Abdul Rahman Baloch (better known as 'Rahman Dakait') and his three companions in a controversial police encounter in August 2009.

The case against SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan and some of his subordinates was registered on the court's intervention on February 4, 2010 on two identical petitions filed by Rahman Baloch's wife and a sister of another victim.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh has now ordered the appointment of DIG Shahid Hiyat as the new investigation officer of the case and disposed of a review application filed by Baloch's wife.

The court had first appointed DIG Bashir Memon as the IO of the case but replaced him with SSP Niaz Ahmed Khoso on a review application filed by the state questioning the court's powers to appoint an investigation officer.

The counsel for Rahman Baloch's wife filed another review application seeking appointment of some other official as IO.

The applicant's counsel on Wednesday proposed the names of two DIGs and prayed to the court to appoint any of them as inquiry/investigation officer. Assistant Advocate-General Adnan Karim Memon also proposed the names of three other DIGs. However, the bench ordered the appointment of DIG Shahid Hiyat as the investigation officer.

The same bench had on Feb 24 ordered the replacement of the investigation officer “with the consent of the Assistant Advocate-General, Adnan Karim Memon, and the petitioner's counsel, Advocate Khalid Shah.”

Advocate Shah submitted in the court that he could not hear the bench recording his “consent” due to heavy noise in the court. He stated that SSP Khoso was a member of an investigation team that had already exonerated all the suspects, including Chaudhry Aslam.

He prayed to the court to recall, review or modify its earlier order to the extent of the appointment of inquiry officer.

The case against the SSP and his subordinates was registered on Feb 4 on an SHC order issued on two identical petitions — one filed by Farzana, the wife of Rahman Baloch, and the other by Farah, a sister of another victim, Aurangzeb, who alleged that the four men were killed in a fake police encounter.

Allowing Farzana's petition to the extent that the SHO would lodge a counter FIR, the bench also granted the petitioner's request for the appointment of DIG Bashir Memon to conduct an “impartial investigation after the lodging of the FIR”. However, later the court replaced DIG Memon with SSP Khoso while disposing of the criminal review application filed by the state questioning the powers of the high court to appoint a DIG as inquiry officer.

According to Rahman Baloch's widow, her husband had gone to Turbat (Balochistan) to have a business meeting with his friends — Aurangzeb Baloch, a transporter, Nazeer Baloch, a business partner, and Aqeel Ahmed Baloch, a shoe dealer — and the four were intercepted by the police on Aug 9, 2009 between 5pm and 5.30pm near Zero Point on the coastal highway. She alleged that they were subsequently “kidnapped and kept somewhere else”, adding that the four friends were killed on the night of Aug 10, 2009 in a fake encounter at a place near the Steel Town police station.

The woman stated that her husband was a well-known social worker of Lyari and he was considered by some politicians and bureaucrats a hurdle in their way.

In the proposed FIR, she stated “I make a complaint against Mohammed Aslam Khan, commonly known as Chaudhry Aslam, SSP East Zone, Sindh, and his party who due to old enmity and not giving 'bhatta' earlier also registered false cases against my husband by showing two fake encounters. It is, therefore, prayed that a case of murder and kidnapping for ransom be registered against Mohammed Aslam (Chaudhry Aslam) and the police party and legal proceedings may be initiated against them.”

SSP granted pre-arrest bail

The Sindh High Court on Wednesday granted interim pre-arrest bail to a senior superintendent of police (SSP) who was booked in a case pertaining to disappearance of a man and his nephew in 2004.

The case against SSP Aftab Ahmed Khan and others was registered on an order of the Supreme Court on a human rights complaint on February 2, 2010.

It was alleged that the personnel of the law-enforcement agencies whisked away Hafiz Khan Mohammad Chang and his nephew Abdul Waheed Chang on December 21, 2004 in the remit of the Faiz Ganj Police Station, Khairpur.

Khan Mohammad's wife approached the area police who, however, refused to register an FIR.

The woman in her complaint to the apex court stated that the Rohri police booked Abdul Waheed in an arms possession case on Oct 14, 2005, but her husband was still not declared arrested till then.

The Supreme Court ordered registration of a case against DPO Imran Yaqoob Minhas, SSP Aftab Ahmed and Inspector Jahangir Khan Mehar.