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Minister seeks dissolution of team probing his brother’s assassination

Alleges JIT not functioning professionally, likely to give clean chit to financiers

By our correspondents
November 24, 2015
PESHAWAR: A provincial minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has expressed no confidence in the joint investigation team (JIT) set up to probe the assassination of former minister Israrullah Gandapur in the 2013 suicide attack and written to the government to dissolve the body forthwith.
On November 23, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Agriculture Ikramullah Gandapur wrote the letter expressing his and his family’s lack of trust in the proceedings of the JIT.He alleged that the JIT was not functioning professionally and was likely to give a clean chit to the financiers, perpetrators and supporters of the suicide attack on Israrullah Gandapur in October 2013.
“The acts of JIT are highly deplorable in all aspects. I have no trust whatsoever in the JIT anymore,” said the letter sent by provincial agriculture minister Ikramullah Gandapur to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
The copies of the letter were sent to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, inspector general of police, chief secretary and home secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Ikramullah Gandapur complained that neither his nor his brother Inamullah Gandapur’s statement was recorded. He maintained that some key witnesses weren’t heard by the JIT.
In April 2015, Ikramullah Gandapur had sent a letter to the chief minister, criticising the KP government and the provincial assembly for being silent over the murder of Israrullah Gandapur in the suicide attack.
“My family, friends and people from the constituency are questioning the potency of the government now,” stated the letter sent by Ikramullah Gandapur , the elder brother of Israrullah Gandapur, to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on April 13.
The letter noted that even after a lapse of one and a half years the perpetrators of the attack had neither been identified nor brought to justice.
The minister demanded constitution of a JIT headed by a serving brigadier rank officer to probe the suicide attack on Israrullah Gandapur.
Israrullah Gandapur, the law minister in the KP government, was killed along with several others when a suicide bomber targetted him in his hujra in Dera Ismail Khan’s Kulachi tehsil on the day of Eidul Azha in October 2013.
The family has been asking the government and all concerned institution to work out the high-profile case. On a number of occasions, they expressed displeasure over the investigation into the case.
“It would not be out of place to make it a point that “No Serious Efforts” whatsoever have been made to reach the perpetrators, handlers, financiers and plotters of this gory incident. We protested this issue at all the concerned forums but to no avail,” stated the letter sent by Ikramullah Gandapur in April.
“The JIT must be mandated to lay hands on any individual who is found involved in this gory incident. The JIT should be tasked to work out the case within 30 days, after which the case should be instantly referred to the military court for trial,” the minister’s letter said.
Israrullah Gandapur, the son of the late chief minister Sardar Inayatullah Khan Gandapur, won the 2013 general election as an independent candidate. He was heading a group of 13 independent MPAs in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly until he joined the PTI to become the minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights.
Israrullah Gandapur is survived by a widow, eight-year old son Sardar Inayatullah Gandapur Junior and three-year old daughter Sherbano. His elder brother Ikramullah Gandapur contested and won the assembly seat that fell vacant in Kulachi, Dera Ismail Khan after his death and was appointed minister for agriculture.
Another brother of Israrullah Gandapur is currently additional secretary in the KP government. He too recently asked the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motto notice in the case.