SHO among five held over Jufelhurst School’s demolition

KARACHI: Sindh’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) made speedy progress in investigations into the demolition of a historical school in the Soldier Bazaar area and arrested five people, including the station house officer and officials of the revenue department.

Talking to The News, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Amir Farooqi of the CTD said that after receiving orders from the superiors to investigate and arrest those involved in damaging the heritage building of the school, he collected all the relevant documents and called those who were directly or indirectly involved in the crime.

He said the building belonged to a woman and her four children, and that it  was in the name of Vincent D Abero. Investigations showed the family had settled in United States in the late 70s, he added.

According to the initial investigations, police and revenue officials as well as the builder mafia were involved in the incident.

DIG Farooqi said they had detained some officials of the revenue department, including a Mukhtiarkar and a surveyor, for questioning. The detainees were said to have told the inquiry team that in the year 2011 a private person, Sajjad Bashir, had come to the Revenue Office with a general power of attorney and claimed that the property had been sold to him by the family, who had also given him the power of attorney.

The revenue officials claimed that according to their record it was a private property and Bashir had asked them to divide the land, which is 4,321 square yards, into two parts. They said they had made the changes on his request.

DIG Farooqi said the land was divided and a bungalow of 1,400 square yards and a bifurcation wall were built there.

Later, the revenue officials told the investigators that Bashir came to their office and sought an NOC (No Objection Certificate) by stating that he wanted to sell the land. They revenue officials gave the NOC without going through the legal procedure that includes issuing notices and placing advertisement in newspapers.

Moreover, upon that NOC the land was sold to three persons — Abid Shabbir, Zeeshan Altaf and Adnan Ali – for Rs2.54 corers, DIG Farooqi said and added that in this regard, they had formally arrested Ahmed Memon, Mukhtiarkar of Jamshed Quarters, and City Surveyor Ghulam Fareed Chohan.

He added that they had found the involvement of police officials, including SHO Irshad Soomro and an assistant sub inspector (ASI) of the same police station, and had arrested them.

The DIG said SHO Soomro was posted at the police station in 2011 when the bifurcation wall was constructed. He said that when the inquiry committee asked for his statement, the SHO said that he was not aware of the construction, and when his mobile officer informed him he reached there and stopped the demolition of the school.

Amir Farooqi said that the SHO Soomro had reached the spot at 2am where he stopped the work when residents were protesting. Interestingly, the SHO had not arrested the persons involved in the crime and he just left them without taking action against them. His action amounted to gross negligence on his behalf, the DIG said, adding that raids underway for the arrest of other culprits.

Earlier, the inquiry into the illegal demolition of the Jufelhurst School, a heritage site as well as a functioning school, in Soldier Bazaar was transferred from the East Range police to the Counter-Terrorism Department.

The police spokesperson issued a notification that read, “With the approval of the competent authority, the investigation of case FIR No 87/2017 u/s 447/511/427/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code r/w 18 Sindh Cultural Heritage Preservation Act 1994 of the Soldier Bazaar Police Station, East Range, Karachi is hereby transferred to Munir Ahmed Sheikh, Superintendent of Police Operations-I, CTD Sindh for further investigation on merit.”Additional IG CTD Sanaullah Abbasi will supervise the investigation and submit a report to the IGP.

Abbasi told The News that he had visited the office of the DIG East Range office on Tuesday afternoon where he had met DIG Arif Hanif and the SSP investigation. The East Range officials briefed him about the findings of the investigation they had conducted so far.

Abbasi said he had directed DIG Amir Farooqi and SSP Operations-I Munir Sheikh to start the investigation, keeping in view all aspects, including the documents used in the sale and purchase.

He added that notices would be served to the officials of the provincial board of revenue, the district commissioner’s office and others responsible for making entries in documents to record their statements.