Khalid Khwaja abduction case against Hamid Mir quashed

ISLAMABAD: The Ramna police station has informed Additional Sessions Judge, Islamabad, Muhammad Jehangir, that senior journalist Hamid Mir has no role in the abduction of ex-ISI officer Khalid Khwaja.

Presenting its investigation report in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Islamabad Muhammad Jehangir on Friday in connection with the kidnapping of ex-sensitive agency official Khalid Khwaja, Ramna police station stated that the petitioner failed to present any concrete evidence against the senior journalist about his alleged role in abduction of her husband. The police further stated that it did not find any evidence that either Khalid Khwaja was kidnapped from Islamabad or from the jurisdiction of Ramna police, therefore, the case against Hamid Mir has been quashed. After that, Hafiz Arafat Ahmad, counsel for Hamid Mir, pleaded with the court for permission to withdraw the application for bail before arrest, which was granted.

Islamabad High Court judge Mohsin Kyani had ordered for registration of Khalid Khwaja's abduction case in November 2017 against Hamid Mir. Khwaja was abducted in North Waziristan in March 2010, and was subsequently murdered there.

Khwaja’s son Osama filed an application with Shalimar police station in Islamabad in May 2010, three weeks after burial of his father, alleging that the murder conspiracy of his father was hatched by senior journalist Hamid Mir. He alleged in his application that Hamid Mir sent his father, along with Colonel Imam and British journalist Asad Qureshi to North Waziristan under a conspiracy. Later on, Khalid Khwaja and Colonel Imam were killed by extremists while Asad Qureshi was set free. However, Shalimar police did not register a case as the allegation could not be proved in the initial investigation. A writ petition was filed against the police in the sessions court Islamabad, which was rejected. Khalid Khwaja’s son also filed a petition in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench in 2010, which was also rejected. An intra-court appeal was also filed, which was rejected by the court.

After seven years, Khalid Khwaja’s wife, Shamama Malik again moved sessions court Islamabad, changing the earlier claim that Hamid Mir got Khalid Khwaja abducted through some goons in Islamabad and got him murdered in North Waziristan. The application was rejected. Later on, she moved the IHC, and on the orders of Justice Mohsin Kayani, Ramna police registered a case against Hamid Mir on March 24, 2017. Hamid secured a pre-arrest bail and joined the investigation. During investigation, senior journalist and resident editor of Daily Khabrain, Abdul Wadood Qureshi, recorded his statement with the police. He stated that in February 2010, Khalid Khwaja came to his office and offered conducted interviews of Taliban leaders. On March 22, Khalid Khwaja again asked Abdul Wadood to accompany him in his North Waziristan tour. However, the latter declined the offer. On March 24, 2010, Khwaja telephoned Abdul Wadood and asked him to accompany him as Colonel Imam and journalist Asad Qureshi were also going to North Waziristan with him.

Abdul Wadood reportedly told Khwaja that he had written various columns against Taliban and accompanying him in the tour could be dangerous for him. This episode proved that Khalid Khwaja was not abducted and he went to North Waziristan to meet Taliban leaders on his own free will.

During investigation, former MNA Javed Ibrahim Paracha also told Ramna police that Khalid Khwaja came to his residence on March 24 night in Kohat along with Colonel Imam and Asad Qureshi and spend a night there. Paracha told police he tried to stop Khwaja and his friends from going to North Waziristan, but he did not stop. Later, they were abducted in North Waziristan, Khwaja and Colonel were killed and Asad Qureshi was released by the militants. Hamid Mir told the police during the investigation that he did not have any enmity with Khalid Khwaja, and also didn’t know anything about his visit to Waziristan. He just talked to him by telephone before his departure for Waziristan. He also gave the police a book, Shaheed-e-Amn, written by Mrs Khalid Khwaja, in which she wrote that her husband had gone to North Waziristan on a peace mission, along with Colonel Imam on his own free will. He also phoned his wife from Kohat on March 26, 2010 and informed about his welfare. The book did not mention at all that Khwaja Khalid was abducted from Islamabad, or Hamid Mir got him killed in Waziristan.

But in the FIR, she accused Hamid Mir of abduction of her husband. However, she didn’t give any statement to the police during the investigation. The investigation officer tried several times to contact her and get her statement, but she did not meet him. Osama Khalid, the son of Khalid Khwaja, gave police a tape, containing an alleged telephonic conversation between Hamid Mir and Usman Punjabi. In this tape, Usman asks Hamid Mir where Khalid Khwaja was, and Hamid said that the deceased was in Khyber Agency, though everyone knew that Khalid Khwaja was abducted in North Waziristan.

Hamid Mir told police he never talked to any Usman Punjabi on telephone. Osama Khalid also failed to tell the police as to who recorded that conversation and where. On Friday, office-bearers of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists, President Mubarak Zaib, Vice President Sagheer Chaudhry and General Secretary Ali Raza Alvi, were also present in the court, along with Hamid Mir.