About four weeks have passed after the murder of Tariq Khan, senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Sindh, and the police investigators are still groping in the dark, clueless about the motives and people behind the murder.
Although, soon after the incident, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Inspector Police Sindh Dr Shoaib Suddle constituted three investigation committees headed by DIG East A.D. Khwaja, DIG Investigation Ghulam Qadir Thebo and DIG CID Saud Ahmed Mirza, it seems that Tariq Khan’s murder case would be no different than the previous such murders of city’s renowned social and political figures, wherein not a single person involved was arrested or elements behind these high-profile killing were exposed.
Although after each such incident, those at the helm make tall claims and resolve that the culprits would not be spared and be brought to justice, such promises have proved just eyewash and lip services.
Tariq Khan, vice-president of Sindh PML-N, was driving alone on May 3 when the assailants on motorcycles intercepted him near the Medicare Hospital and shot him several times in his chest and neck, killing him instantly.
As usual, the murder was followed by a flood of condemnations, constitution of probe committees, resolve to apprehend the culprits and announcement of prize money for those informing about the killers. But such initiatives follow each and every high profile murder, and the culprits are never arrested.
Senior leader of PML-N Sindh Nihal Hashmi Advocate is not very convinced about the assertions and pledges of law enforcers and rulers to apprehend the killers.
Talking to Weekly Pulse, he said the track record of such investigations and probes did not substantiate any optimism about the outcome. There should be collective protection and not person-specific security and protection. Unless we provide sense of protection and security to the whole society, such killings could not be prevented.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the investigation, Mr. Hashmi said before constitution of the committees, PML-N was not taken into confidence. We have just come to known that three committees have been formed to probe Tariq’s Killing. To a question that whether his party was being updated about the investigation, he said none of the officials probing the murder had contacted the party. However, they are in touch with the deceased’s father.
Nihal Hashmi Advocate, who has actively participated in the lawyers’ movement, terms the murder as continuation of the May 12 massacre.
Had we probed the May 12 massacre, exposed and punished the elements involved in the blood bath, such murder would have not happened, he maintained.
Tariq Khan’s killing is a part of an unending pattern of terrorism in the city. It is a message for democratic and political forces in Karachi and has multiple purposes. It is aimed at restricting political activities of dynamic political workers and leaders, Hashmi said.
He said the central leadership of the party was in constant touch with the deceased’s family and would visit Karachi to condole his death. The party has also approached the federal government regarding the murder and would soon announce its future line of action, he added. The party, he said, wanted to give some time to the provincial administration and law enforcers to arrest the murderers, and if we feel that thing are not going in the right direction, then we would announce our strategy in this regard.
During last-one-and-half year, the city has witnessed an upsurge in killing of political workers, and most all major political parties, including Awami National Party (ANP), Punjabi Pakhtoon Ittehad (PPI), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-H), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Sunni Tehrik, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) have lost many of their workers and leaders, but in all most all cases, the murders remained at large and could not be brought to justice.
The killing spree intensified after the May 12 massacre and the communal harmony and relations between ethnic groups soared. The May 12 blood bath is not a tragedy that could be forgotten easily, but it is something more than a tragedy and would continue to haunt the city until a proper investigation was not carried out and the perpetrator were not brought to justice. The reaction of the state apparatus and the then government to the mayhem was shameful rather deplorable.
Meanwhile, Jammat-e-Islami Sindh Naib Ameer Dr Merajul Huda Siddiqui, while advocating restoration of the deposed judges, said unless the May 12 mayhem was not probed impartially and the perpetrator brought to justice, the killing spree of political worker and leader would continue.
Talking to Weekly Pulse, he said during the five-year stint of MQM in power, as many as 40 workers and leaders of JI were killed, and not a single culprit was arrested. He recalled that on May 2004, twelve JI workers were killed by “MQM terrorists” in a single day on the occasion of by-election against three NA seats, and no action had been taken so far.
Regarding the ANP-MQM agreement to probe the May 12 mayhem, he said that he did not accept any committee formed with the consensus of the ‘accused’.
He said independent judiciary should be restored and the suo motu proceedings, being conducted by a larger bench of SHC headed by Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani, into the mayhem be reopened.
Talking to Weekly Pulse, PPI Chairman Malik Ayub Awan, whose party has lost many workers and leaders in recent months, said on May 10, the elements responsible for May 12 bloodshed phoned and asked him not to take part in the welcome procession of the deposed CJP, threatening that all those who defied their orders, would be taught a lesson.
Ayub Awan called for constituting a committee headed by some deposed judges to probe into the mayhem. He said if some one had objections to deposed judges, then there were many former judges to choose from like Sajjad Ali Shah, Fakhruddin G Ibrahim or Saeeuduz Zaman Siddqui, whose integrity and impartiality could not be questioned.
He accused the MQM of killing those leaders and workers who had been active in politic during the troubled eighties and nineties.
BOX ITEM:
Outcomes Of Probes Into High-Profile Killings
The history of probes into high-profile murders and massacre does not show any positive outcome as dozens of such investigations and inquiries conducted after assassination of politicians in the city have remained inconclusive.
More than a dozen murders of the city’s popular political and social personalities over the past five years deprived almost all parties of their leaders, but the killers have not been found.
A brief look at the police response right after the murder of prominent personalities during the last few years shows that special investigation teams have never produced the desired results.
In early 2003, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s member of the National Assembly Khalid Bin Waleed was killed by gunmen. His killing led to the formation of an independent police inquiry team. While the committee’s report remained a mystery, former speaker of the Sindh assembly and vice-president of the PML (Q) Sindh, Raziq Khan, was gunned down in broad daylight on one of the busiest city roads near the City Courts in June the same year.
This time the government went a step further and appointed an additional district and sessions judge to hold an inquiry into the murder of the then ruling party’s leader. However, those efforts also produced no results.
The year 2004 witnessed targeted killings of two senior leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which attracted serious criticism from political quarters towards the government, prompting independent police and judicial inquiries. But the killers of the PPP leaders are still unknown.
First, Abdullah Murad, the party’s Sindh Assembly member, was intercepted and killed in March 2004 at Malir, from where he had been elected. His murder forced the authorities to set up a judicial commission headed by a Sindh High Court judge, which never made public the inquiry’s findings, still being awaited by the party and family of the deceased leader.
The same year, Munawwar Soharwardy, the Sindh PPP’s information secretary, was shot dead on the main Business Recorder Road. The police investigation report for that particular killing is also awaited.
In January 2005, armed attackers shot dead Baloch Ittehad Tehreek chief Anwar Bhaijan, in what was believed to be a case of targeted killing. His murder was seen as a serious blow to the peace initiatives undertaken by community elders in Lyari amid years-long gang warfare between two groups. The police authorities pledged that the culprits would be arrested within a month, but even after more than three years, the commitment remains unfulfilled.
In May the same year, Jamal Tahir, a local leader of Jamat-e-Islami was kidnapped and killed in Landhi area. The following day, Naib Amir of the JI Karachi and former MPA Aslam Mujahid was kidnapped when he was returning home after attending the funeral ceremony of Jamal Tahir in Landhi, and later his bullet riddle body was thrown into nearby bushes.
On the order of the provincial home ministry, a committee, headed by a DIG-level officer, was formed to find the killers. Both the party and the police authorities remain unaware of the findings of the committee.
And then in March 2006, PML-Q’s additional general secretary Badar Iqbal was killed on the main M. A. Jinnah Road by unknown attackers. But investigation findings in these and other killings have never seen the light of day.
The authorities at the central police office (CPO) and law-enforcers, who have held several senior positions in the city police setup, believed that it was not always political influence that obstructed the outcome of such investigations.
