SHC to investigation officer: If any hitch in probe, ask for written statement of Uzair Baloch

KARACHI: Hearing the constitutional petition for the recovery of four people including a police havaladar, the Sindh High Court (SHC) has asked the Investigation Officer DSP Jafar Baloch that if there was some difficulty in investigation he could contact military authorities to get a written statement of Uzair Baloch and submit a report by Oct 24.

The four including Havaldar Lala Ameen, Ghazi Khan, Sher Afzal and Sher Khan went missing since August 2010 and are considered to have been killed by Uzair Baloch. Ghazi Khan’s mother has filed a petition in 2011 about their disappearance from outside the Central Prison, Karachi falling in the jurisdiction of New Town Police Station.

The SHC division bench headed by Justice K K Agha asked the IO to get Uzair’s written statement to ascertain if he got the four people murdered and indicate the location where their bodies were buried.

In his observations, Justice Agha said it appears from the statement of the Home Department that the IO has failed to record the statement of Uzair Baloch.

Appearing before the SHC bench, the Home Secretary informed that the IO had contacted the 5 Corps Headquarters on Sept 19, 23 and was told that they would seek directives from the GHQ before any statement. At an earlier hearing, DIG East Amir Farooqi had informed the court that Uzair Baloch in his statement under section 164 before a magistrate had confessed to killing the four. But the Police could not conduct any further investigations since Uzair was subsequently detained by army.