A.Rafay
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ISLAMABAD: The alleged target killer, Ajmal Pahari, has been acquitted and set free despite his on-camera confession of involvement in 111 murders, and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report on his alleged crimes.
After seeing the JIT report Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry observed on September 6, 2011 that, Paharis declaration of guilt is an eye-opener.
The JIT report, however, could not be proved in court as the accused and all the witnesses of the murder cases retracted their statements that earlier accused Pahari of murders. The court was therefore left with no option but to order his release in accordance with the law of the land.
Ajmal Pahari alias Adnan Bhai was arrested by the Anti Extremist Cell of Karachi Polices Crime Investigation Department on March 18, 2011 from his New Karachi area hideout.
SSP Chaudhry Aslam termed his arrest a major success in the fight against terrorism in Karachi, saying Pahari was a notorious target killer wanted in 111 cases of target killings.
The Sindh government had subsequently formed a Joint Interrogation Team (JIT) consisting of the representatives of Inter Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, Special Branch (SB), Sindh Rangers, and the Crime Investigation Department of Sindh Police to interrogate Pahari, who was described as a high-profile dreaded terrorist.
During subsequent interrogations by the JIT, Pahari had confessed to having killed 111 people in Karachi on the alleged instructions of Muttahida Qaumi Movement top brass.
The MQM leadership was quick to defend Pahari and refute his involvement, with Mustafa Kamal holding a press conference saying he was arrested on flimsy charges and tortured into making false confessions about killing people on the instructions of the MQM leadership.
As a five-member bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took suo moto notice of the law and order situation in the port city in September 2011, then IGP Sindh Wajid Durrani was asked to submit a comprehensive report on those groups and individuals that were involved in target killings.
The records subsequently provided to the chief justice also included Ajmal Paharis interrogation report by the JIT, bearing No SO (Le-I) /3-16-2010-/2010 dated 31-03-2011. As per Paharis own video-recorded confessional statement [which is still available on www.zemtv.com/2012/10/24mqm-ke-target-killer-ajmal-pahari-ka-joint-statement], he had confessed to having received training in India and killing 111 people in Karachi out of which 53 were shot dead between 1986 to 2000 and 58 others killed between 2005 to 2011, till his arrest.
He claimed that instructions for these killings used to come from the London Secretariat; from Nine Zeero in Karachi and from South Africa. After receiving instructions from London, Zeeshan and I went to Singapore in 1996. From there I went to India for training, the JIT report quoted Pahari as saying.
Having gone through Paharis declaration of guilt, the CJP had termed it an eye-opener and directed the IG Sindh Police to inform the apex court about the status of cases against the alleged target killer.
In his reply, IG Wajid Durrani said Pahari was behind bars and being tried in dozens of cases of murder and attempted-murder. However, over the next 12 months, quite surprisingly, Pahari was acquitted in all the 15 murder cases which were dismissed for want of evidence.
Pahari had retracted his confessional statement, saying it was recorded by his interrogators under duress, which was followed by the retraction statements of all the witnesses in the undertrial murder cases filed against him.
As Ajmal Pahari was acquitted in 111 murder cases and bailed in the remaining four by the first week of September 2012, the Sindh government decided to place him under detention [on September 20, 2012] under Section 3 (1) of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO), 1960. Pahari then decided to challenge his detention under the MPO in the Sindh High Court on January 11, 2013, maintaining that his detention under Section 3 (1) of the MPO, mainly because of pre-sumptuous reasons, was without any justification or validity.
He further pleaded that all the murder cases filed against him had already proven false and that under the MPO, no person could be detained for a period exceeding three months unless a board had reported before the expiry of detention order that in its opinion there was sufficient cause for such detention. The Sindh High Court was prayed to set aside the impugned detention order, and order the release of Pahari forthwith. A division bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, was left with no option but to order his release on January 18, 2013.
Ajmal Pahari released as JIT report proved false - thenews.com.pk
After seeing the JIT report Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry observed on September 6, 2011 that, Paharis declaration of guilt is an eye-opener.
The JIT report, however, could not be proved in court as the accused and all the witnesses of the murder cases retracted their statements that earlier accused Pahari of murders. The court was therefore left with no option but to order his release in accordance with the law of the land.
Ajmal Pahari alias Adnan Bhai was arrested by the Anti Extremist Cell of Karachi Polices Crime Investigation Department on March 18, 2011 from his New Karachi area hideout.
SSP Chaudhry Aslam termed his arrest a major success in the fight against terrorism in Karachi, saying Pahari was a notorious target killer wanted in 111 cases of target killings.
The Sindh government had subsequently formed a Joint Interrogation Team (JIT) consisting of the representatives of Inter Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, Special Branch (SB), Sindh Rangers, and the Crime Investigation Department of Sindh Police to interrogate Pahari, who was described as a high-profile dreaded terrorist.
During subsequent interrogations by the JIT, Pahari had confessed to having killed 111 people in Karachi on the alleged instructions of Muttahida Qaumi Movement top brass.
The MQM leadership was quick to defend Pahari and refute his involvement, with Mustafa Kamal holding a press conference saying he was arrested on flimsy charges and tortured into making false confessions about killing people on the instructions of the MQM leadership.
As a five-member bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took suo moto notice of the law and order situation in the port city in September 2011, then IGP Sindh Wajid Durrani was asked to submit a comprehensive report on those groups and individuals that were involved in target killings.
The records subsequently provided to the chief justice also included Ajmal Paharis interrogation report by the JIT, bearing No SO (Le-I) /3-16-2010-/2010 dated 31-03-2011. As per Paharis own video-recorded confessional statement [which is still available on www.zemtv.com/2012/10/24mqm-ke-target-killer-ajmal-pahari-ka-joint-statement], he had confessed to having received training in India and killing 111 people in Karachi out of which 53 were shot dead between 1986 to 2000 and 58 others killed between 2005 to 2011, till his arrest.
He claimed that instructions for these killings used to come from the London Secretariat; from Nine Zeero in Karachi and from South Africa. After receiving instructions from London, Zeeshan and I went to Singapore in 1996. From there I went to India for training, the JIT report quoted Pahari as saying.
Having gone through Paharis declaration of guilt, the CJP had termed it an eye-opener and directed the IG Sindh Police to inform the apex court about the status of cases against the alleged target killer.
In his reply, IG Wajid Durrani said Pahari was behind bars and being tried in dozens of cases of murder and attempted-murder. However, over the next 12 months, quite surprisingly, Pahari was acquitted in all the 15 murder cases which were dismissed for want of evidence.
Pahari had retracted his confessional statement, saying it was recorded by his interrogators under duress, which was followed by the retraction statements of all the witnesses in the undertrial murder cases filed against him.
As Ajmal Pahari was acquitted in 111 murder cases and bailed in the remaining four by the first week of September 2012, the Sindh government decided to place him under detention [on September 20, 2012] under Section 3 (1) of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO), 1960. Pahari then decided to challenge his detention under the MPO in the Sindh High Court on January 11, 2013, maintaining that his detention under Section 3 (1) of the MPO, mainly because of pre-sumptuous reasons, was without any justification or validity.
He further pleaded that all the murder cases filed against him had already proven false and that under the MPO, no person could be detained for a period exceeding three months unless a board had reported before the expiry of detention order that in its opinion there was sufficient cause for such detention. The Sindh High Court was prayed to set aside the impugned detention order, and order the release of Pahari forthwith. A division bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, was left with no option but to order his release on January 18, 2013.
Ajmal Pahari released as JIT report proved false - thenews.com.pk
