KARACHI, July 30 The Fereozeabad police registered on Thursday an FIR against the additional home secretary for the murder of a Sunni Tehreek activist.

The police acted on the orders of a sessions court, which acknowledged a complaint from the ST that the senior provincial official, Riazuddin Qureshi, was behind the July 1 shootout that killed one of its activists.

An ST worker was killed and another was wounded during the shootout with the police in front of the rented house of the party's slain chief, Abbas Qadri, in PECHS. The house was originally owned by the mother of Mr Qureshi. The police authorities claimed that the law enforcers had gone with a bailiff for the compliance of court orders for the eviction of the tenants when ST workers opened fire on the police party to prevent eviction.

The ST, however, alleged that the police opened heavy fire on the ST workers who were protesting against the police harassment on the instruction of the additional home secretary.

The officials said the FIR was registered after district and sessions judge Munawar Sultana ordered the Ferozeabad police to entertain the ST request.

“Under the court directive, we have registered an FIR (837/09) under Sections 302 and 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code against Riazuddin Qureshi and some police officials,” said Javed Akbar Riaz, the SP of Jamshed Town. “In the court orders there are no specific names and ranks of the policemen to be nominated in the FIR. So, only Mr Riazuddin has been mentioned by name and for police there are 'several personnel'.”

After the July 1 incident, the Ferozeabad police had registered a case (FIR 748/2009) against ST workers under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of a common object), 302 (murder), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the court bailiff.