KARACHI: The Sindh police have decided to add terrorism charges to the FIR registered against police officials involved in an alleged encounter of three men on Sharah-e-Faisal in January.
The decision came following a review of the two-minute-and-30-second long closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the incident.
A week ago, the father of one of the three men, identified as 27-year-old Maqsood, had demanded that the accused officials should be tried under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). He also asked the authorities to make public the footage of the incident. No action has yet been taken on that request.
Rights activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir, who has viewed the CCTV footage of the incident, was quoted in the mediaon Wednesday as saying that the nature of the offense warranted addition of terrorism charges.
Regarding the police’s decision to not release the footage, he said the prosecutor had also refused to make it part of the case file.
Nasir said there was no evidence that could establish that Ali, Babar, Ibrahim and Maqsood were involved in any criminal activity. He said the CCTV footage showed a policeman shooting Maqsood, who was unarmed, in what was clearly a staged encounter. He said the entire police station was privy to these facts and was, therefore, caused hindrances during the filing of the report.
Referring to Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal’s visit to the deceased’s family home, Nasir said the PPP leader had yet to follow through on his commitment, despite sending a letter to the office of home minister.
According to media reports on Wednesday, in the letter, the minister had urged the authorities to place police officials involved in the encounter, namely ASI Tariq Khan, Constable Akber Khan and Constable Abdul Waheed, on the Exit Control List (ECL).
The incident took place on January 20.
The three men were shot and killed near the Pakistan Air Force base on Sharah-e-Faisal.
In its initial statements released to the media, the police held that Maqsood was wanted for several crimes and was shot in an encounter. Later, the police retracted the initial statement and issued another statement, claiming that Maqsood was innocent and he got killed in crossfire between the police and the other two men, who were wanted for several robberies and other crimes. The police said Ali and Babar were arrested while their accomplice Ibrahim managed to escape the scene.
During a press conference on March 27, Nasir told the media that he had seen the CCTV footage of the incident, showing that the three men were unarmed and were killed in a staged encounter.
“A police mobile was following a rickshaw, which overturned after the police opened indiscriminate fire. Later, the policemen, especially ASI Tariq, took two men [who were travelling in the vehicle] onto the footpath and shot them,” Nasir told reporters. He added that the ASI later turned back to the rickshaw and shot the third man [Maqsood] multiple times at close range, who was still in the vehicle along with the driver and another man.
Published in Daily Times, April 5th 2018.