APS attack: PHC summons investigation officer with record

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has summoned a police investigation officer along with record at the next hearing in a writ petition filed by father of an Army Public School (APS) martyr for his statement to be recorded by those probing the case.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Roohul Amin Khan summoned the deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), who is an investigation officer of the APS incident, at the next hearing.

The writ petition was filed by Fazal Khan, father of the martyred student Umar Khan. He requested the court to order the inclusion of the provisions of law related to criminal negligence in the FIR registered at the Counter-Terrorism Department Police Station.

The petitioner claimed that he personally went to the CTD Police Station several times for recording his statement, but the cops didn't accept his request. During the course of hearing, Qazi Mohammad Anwar, lawyer for Fazal Khan, said that despite repeated requests the relevant investigation agencies didn't record his client's statement about the APS killings.

"What is problem to an investigation agency if father of the martyred student wants to record his statement in the investigation of the case," Chief Justice Yahya Afridi observed. Justice Roohul Amin Khan remarked that the petitioner can also record his statement before the judicial magistrate. However, the petitioner informed the bench that the police had already started investigation in the case.

The petitioner made the provincial police officer, capital city police officer, home secretary and other officials the respondents in the petition and said the responsibility of criminal negligence on the part of the officials should be fixed.

Another petition was filed by Ajun Khan, father of another APS martyr Asfand Khan, seeking the court's orders for the federal and provincial governments to make public all information related to the APS carnage and the action taken by them after getting intelligence in August 2014 about the likely attack on the army-run school in Peshawar.

Ajun Khan, in his writ petition, sought judicial inquiry of the incident to fix responsibility for the negligence. The deceased student Asfand Khan's mother told the bench that she and other bereaved families needed justice and wanted to know how the terrorist incident took place in a very sensitive area though there was already intelligence about it. She also called for judicial inquiry of the tragedy.

Ajun Khan claimed that on August 28, 2014, the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) in Islamabad had informed the provincial government and Fata additional chief secretary in writing that the commander of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in collaboration with other militant outfits, had planned to stage terrorist attacks on the APS in Peshawar and other Pakistan Army-run educational institutions to kill the children of army officers and soldiers to avenge the killing of their activists.