Murtaza Bhutto

IT WAS QUIET WHEN I ARRIVED ON THE SCENE:
ARIF ILLAHI
H. A. Hamied
KARACHI, Nov. 30, 1996: The chairman of the three-member inquiry tribunal
investigating the police firing in which Mir Murtaza and his seven
companions were killed, Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, on Saturday asked the
then deputy commissioner of district south, Arif Illahi, why did he not even
bother to find out how many people were injured and killed in the Sept 20
incident in Clifton and that why he stayed secluded in the hospital where the
PPP (SB) leader, Murtaza Bhutto, was admitted.
The chairman, questioning the witness, asked why he continued to stay in the
hospital and did not return to the scene of the incident to see whether the
bodies were sent away or the wounded admitted to hospitals. The chairman
asked him why as a deputy commissioner and in charge of the law and order
situation in his district, did he not leave the hospital to find out other things,
about the shifting of the dead or injured persons to hospital, when he saw
that his SDMs had not done their jobs.
The witness, Arif Illahi, who is presently director of Inquiries-III in the
Inquiries and Anti-Corruption Wing of the Services and General
Administration Department, government of Sindh, replied that he spoke to
the then SSP Wajid Ali Durrani, who was on the scene and that he had told
him that six men had died, eight others were injured and six arrested.
For the arrest of Ali Sonara, the witness was asked, whether the SHO of
Khokhrapar police station, in Malir district, was competent, without the
permission or knowledge of the DC South or the police station concerned ?
The witness replied that in Karachi districts it is not happening that the police
stations concerned should be associated with any arrest by the police of other
district, while this is the practice in other districts of the province.
Mr Illahi denied any knowledge of the arrest of Ali Sonara in his district.
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