Murtaza Bhutto

MLOS WERE QUESTIONED BY UK DETECTIVES
KARACHI, Dec. 17: Asghar Ali and police constable Ayaz Ali, both working
for Mir Murtaza Bhutto, who were injured in the Sept 20 incident in Clifton,
were taken by the police to the emergency trauma centre at Jinnah
Postgraduate Medical Centre hand-cuffed for medical treatment and medicolegal
certificates. Dr Mohammad Ismail Rajpar, a senior medico-legal officer
at JPMC, testified before the three-member tribunal of inquiry, conducting
investigations into the police firing resulting in the death of Mir Murtaza
Bhutto and seven others, on Tuesday.
When the MLO asked the police sub-inspector, Sarwar of Clifton PS, to
remove the hand-cuffs, he replied that he had no keys. The police had
brought three such injured for medico-legal certificates. The injured who
were taken by the police to JPMC for such certificates and treatment were
Mohammad Ismail, Ayaz Ali, a police constable provided by the government
to the late leader of his own choice; and Asghar Ali, a personal servant of the
PPP (SB) leader. During the seven-hour examination by the tribunal,
comprising Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, judge, Supreme Court; Justice
Amanullah Abbasi and Justice Dr Ghous Mohammad, both judges of the
High Court of Sindh, the witness was asked whether it was a normal practice
to bring the injured accused in hand-cuffs, and he said "yes."
In some serious cases the hand-cuffs are not removed but in other cases
doctors' requests are met with approval, he said. He said Mir Murtaza's postmortem
was conducted by Dr Ayaz Ali Memon at Mideast Medical Centre,
and he assisted Dr Memon. The post-mortem was conducted by examining
the types of wounds on his body, which, according to him, determined the
cause of death as being shot at.
The doctor was asked by the tribunal to explain the difference between a
post-mortem and an autopsy. He explained that in autopsy incision is carried
out from the neck downward and the organs and the food intake are
examined to determine the cause of death, but in the case of post-mortem the
cause of death can be determined by the type of gunshot wounds and other
external wounds, and there were such evidences which were very apparent.
The witness said post-mortem was also conducted on four unknown persons.
Only Ashiq Hussain Jatoi's brother and friends were present to receive the
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