Murtaza Bhutto

TWO ASPS GRANTED INTERIM BAIL BEFORE
ARREST
KARACHI, Nov 10, 1996: Two assistant superintendents of police Rai
Mohammad Tahir of Darakhshan and Shahid Hayat of Saddar have been
granted interim bail before arrests for one day by the High Court of Sindh.
The ASPs' names were mentioned in the FIR registered by Noor Mohammad,
an associate of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, on Saturday. The complainant had
escaped arrest and he was part of Murtaza's party, which was intercepted by
the police on Sept 20, and during the firing eight people were killed including
Mir Murtaza and Ashiq Hussain Jatoi.
The application for pre-bail arrests were filed before the chief justice of the
SHC on Saturday, at his residence, at about 8 pm, by Abdul Qadir Siddiqui
and Karim Khan Agha, counsel for the police officers. The CJ referred them to
Justice Kamal Mansur Alam. Both the counsels, accompanied by the
applicants, then went to the residence of Justice Mansur Alam who, after
hearing Mr Siddiqui and Mr Agha, granted interim bail before arrest in the
sum of Rs 200,000 each and personal bonds in the same amount. The interim
pre-bail will come up for confirmation on Monday morning. The counsel
argued that there was no evidence to link the two ASPs with the Sept 20
incident, in which eight people were killed by the police in firing, including
Mir Murtaza and Ashiq Jatoi. They submitted that there was only a bare
allegation against the ASPs and there was nothing to link them with the
alleged conspiracy. Rai Tahir and Shahid Hayat were not the aggressors
according to the then SHO of Clifton PS Haq Nawaz Sial's FIR and, therefore,
there was room for further investigations. They were not armed and were
there at the scene, on the orders of their superiors. When the pre-arrest bail
comes up for confirmation on Monday morning, K. M. Nadeem, additional
advocate general, will represent the government of Sindh.
Murtaza Bhutto; Copyright © www.bhutto.org
172