PHC orders IGP to act against involved cops

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police chief to take drastic departmental action against the officers and cops found involved in the alleged kidnapping and rape of Uzma Ayub and subsequent murder of her brother, Alamzeb Khattak.
The directive was passed by a two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth after submission of inquiry reports relating to the kidnapping and rape of Uzma Ayub and murder of her brother in which 29 police personnel of different ranks were held responsible.
The bench asked Inspector General of Police Akbar Khan Hoti to take action after giving fair chance of hearing to the cops involved in the incidents according to law and submit the report at the office of PHC registrar.
A high-level team headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police Muhammad Idrees Khan and Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Attiqullah Wazir presented the final inquiry report in Alamzeb’s murder and procession in favour of the accused, Assistant Sub-Inspector Hakeem Shah, and against the judiciary along with the progress report about kidnapping of Uzma Ayub and her rape by the police officers and other accused persons.
The suo motu notice in the case was taken by the Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan after the murder of Alamzeb at a trial court in Takht-e-Nusrati in Karak district where he had gone for the hearing of the case of his sister’s rape against the police officers.
In its detailed order the bench stated that final reports of inquiry conducted by the DIG Idrees Khan and district and sessions judge of Karak relating to these cases had been submitted in the court.
The inquiry reports stated that the Karak police had acted as brothers of the accused police officers involved in kidnapping and rape of the girl and were involved directly or indirectly in the case. “It is also pointed out in the reports that ASI Hakeem was made an uncrowned king

of police by the then Karak DPO Sajid Mohmand and he used to command his officers of DSP rank on many occasions,” the order said.
The bench observed that the inquiry report stated that 29 police of different ranks had been suspended and were under investigation in cases of Uzma Ayub and her murdered brother Alamzeb.
The reports noted that the escorting Kohat police had also violated rules by not producing the accused ASI Hakeem handcuffed in the trial court. The report stated that DSP Muhammad Subhan, ASI Muzaffar and a heavy armed police contingent were present in the court premises but they didn’t take any precautionary measures to prevent Alamzeb’s murder or arrest the killers.
The report said the police officers had extended silent support to ASI Hakeem and were guilty of connivance and abetment. Besides, it said the two SHOs — Haji Abdur Rehman and Muhammad Kamal — played a similar role as the police story about chasing the killers was concocted to save their skin.
With regard to the investigation in the Uzma Ayub case, the SP Investigation Attiqullah Wazir in his report stated that the culprits detained her for a long time and then left her at the General Bus Stand in Bannu before calling her brother from a public call office to take her.
It said that in earlier investigation, the public call office owner made a statement about another girl but in the fresh investigation he remembered that Uzma Ayub had made a call from the public call office for which she had no money and had to wait long before her brother came and took her home. He said the statement by the public call office owner proved the Uzma Ayub’s earlier claim that she had made in her statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) before the judicial magistrate.
The bench directed the investigation officer to finalise and submit his investigation report about Uzma Ayub after the birth of her baby and include record of the DNA and forensic tests about the identity of the baby for confirming its father so that the rapist is brought to justice.
The bench also ordered shifting of the case from the Anti-Terrorism Court in Kohat to Peshawar keeping in view the security threat to the family.
The court issued contempt of court notices to police officers DSP Subhan, ASI Muzafar and the accused ASI Hakeem and his other relatives or supporters including Malik Ghali Bostan, Malik Haqdad, Kaleem Shah and Maulana Irshad Nawaz to appear in the court for passing anti-judiciary and sectarian remarks against the judge and taking out procession in support of the accused police officer Hakeem Khan to pressure the judge for his release on bail.