Murtaza Bhutto

IO VIOLATED RULES TRIBUNAL EXAMINES 61
PICTURES TAKEN BY POLICE
KARACHI, Jan 21, 1997: The first investigating officer of the Sept 20 killings
at Clifton was told by the tribunal of inquiry that he had not followed the
rules and procedures for conducting the investigations. The tribunal
investigating the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case told the IO on Tuesday
that he did not follow the rules because he was holding with him 61
photographs in his office which he did not give to the crimes branch when the
case was handed over to the agency on Sept 23. Sub-inspector Khurram
Warris, formerly of the Clifton PS and now under suspension at the Police
Lines, district South, who made his third appearance before the tribunal on
Tuesday, was sent to the police station to bring with him the photographs.
The IO had stated earlier that the pictures lying with him.
The witness and the PDSP Shamim Hussain, police liaison officer at the
tribunal, were sent to bring the pictures and they were produced shortly
afterwards. There were 61 of them in colour. They were mostly of the vehicles
hit by bullets fired on the day of incident. The vehicles, belonging to the
police, Murtaza's men and a taxi which was also hit accidentally, whose
driver Bachal died of head injuries in hospital, a day later.
Q: Who photographed them and under whose instructions?
A: Some were photographed on my instructions and the other at the
instructions of the then ASP Rai Tahir.
Q: Why did you not send these photographs to the Crimes Branch which took
over the investigation of the case?
A: Since they were already seen by the Crimes Branch's DSP Saeed Ahmad
Khan and inspector Asghar Baloch and since none of them asked for it, I
thought the copies of which might already be with them, therefore, I did not
thought it necessary to send them officially. Another reason was that a senior
officer ASP Rai Tahir was in the full knowledge of the photographs taken and
several copies made of them, I thought, one set might also be with them. I did
what I was asked to do, being a junior officer. I retained the set with me for
the police station's record and for no other purpose.
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