Final charge sheet submitted in Dr Shahnawaz murder case

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has submitted the final challan (charge sheet) in the murder case of Dr. Shahnawaz Kumbhar, refuting claims that the doctor—who was allegedly killed in a staged police encounter in September 2024 in Mirpurkhas—possessed a pistol and fired two shots, and maintaining that he was already in police custody.

Dr. Shahnawaz murder case hearing took place in the Anti-Terrorism Court, Mirpurkhas, where FIA officials submitted the 29-page challan. It states the weapons used to shoot Dr. Shahnawaz allegedly belonged to CIA police officials Nadir Pervaiz and Ghulam Qadir.

The challan also states after being taken into custody, Dr. Shahnawaz remained in Umerkot police’s custody for around five hours before being transferred to Mirpurkhas police on the directive of DIG Javed Jiskani, a move that “violated legal procedures”.

By tracking police vehicles, the challan details that Dr. Shahnawaz was handed over to individuals travelling in the official vehicle of SSP Mirpurkhas at Jamrao check post by Umerkot police. SSP Mirpurkhas Choudri Asad’s vehicle later reached Ratanabad, where it was joined by a CIA Mirpurkhas vehicle.

Dr. Shahnawaz was then transferred to the CIA centre’s mobile unit, which first arrived at the CIA centre and later moved towards Khipro Road. The vehicle eventually reached Hangorno near Sindhri, where it met a mobile unit of Sindhri police. At 12:25am, both vehicles arrived at Sabzal Stop, where they stopped for only one minute before heading back towards Sindhri. The Sindhri police mobile returned to the Sindhri police station, while the CIA centre vehicle transported Dr. Shahnawaz’s dead body to Mirpurkhas Civil Hospital.

The challan also states a few days after the incident, some of the accused police officers allegedly transferred Rs1.5 million rupees to a bank account. The FIA claims that the report was compiled based on forensic analysis of the accused officers’ mobile phones.

Following the submission of the final challan, the next hearing of the case has been scheduled for February 26.

FIA nominated total 22 persons, including former DIG Mirpurkhas Javed Soonharo Jiskani, former SSP Umerkot Asif Raza Baloch, former SSP Mirpurkhas Choudri Asad, cleric Umar Jan Serhandi and others as accused in murder case, out of them nine are on interim bail, five arrested and eight are still at large including of DIG Jiskani and SSP Choudri.

Meanwhile, the complainant in the case, Advocate Ibrahim Kumbhar, said that after reviewing the FIA’s final challan, they would include in the case the individuals who celebrated at the DIG Mirpurkhas office and those who played a key role in inciting people through social media.