Murtaza Bhutto

ELEVEN COPS HELD IN MURTAZA CASE
Mohammed Riaz
KARACHI, Oct. 24, 1996: Eleven policemen, including an ASI, were arrested
on Thursday for their involvement in the Sept 20 shooting near 70-Clifton, in
which Mir Murtaza and seven of his colleagues were killed.
The Sindh police on Thursday evening issued a brief handout regarding the
arrest of ASI Abdul Basit, head constables Faisal Hafeez and Muslim Shah,
police constables Zulfiqar, Ghulam Shabbir, Zafar Iqbal, Ghulam Mustafa,
Ahmed Khan, Gulzar Khan, Zakir Mehmood and Raja Hameed.
They were arrested under the FIR No. 399/96, registered with the Clifton
police station under Sections 319, 324, 302, Qisas and Diyat Ordinance and
148/149 PPC, lodged by complainant Asghar Ali, Mir Murtaza's driver on
Sept 24. Asghar was an eyewitness and was injured in the shooting, the police
handout said.
The decision for their arrest was taken at a meeting on Thursday after the
return of Chief Minister Abdullah Shah from Islamabad on Wednesday night,
sources told Dawn. They said the chief minister on Wednesday morning held
a meeting with the prime minister and discussed the issue in the light of the
FIR lodged by Asghar Ali. However, Ghinwa Bhutto, widow of Mir Murtaza,
did not accept the contents of the FIR (399/96), asserting that it was a
"manipulation of the police." She has been pleading that another FIR be
registered, in which she has nominated the DIG of Karachi, SSP (South), ASPs
Clifton and Saddar, the SHOs of various police stations and the IB chief here.
The IGP of Sindh had, meanwhile, ordered an inquiry headed by the DIGs of
Crimes, and Inspection and Enquiry, to determine the causes and the nature
of the shooting.
According to reliable sources information so far gathered by the Crimes
Branch team "has not established the claim that Murtaza and his colleagues
were killed under a premeditated plan. The investigators are also inclined to
believe that it is not a 302 case, but that of 319," the sources added.
The prime minister in her first reaction to the shooting, had refused to accept
it as an incident or a case of shootout, and had termed it "target shooting" and
part of the plots "to finish off the Bhuttos." But the DIG of Karachi has so far
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