Murtaza Bhutto

POLICE OFFICER SAYS HE SAW THE AREA
CLEANED UP ON SEPT 21
KARACHI, March 10, 1997: The assistant inspector general of police,
(criminalistic division) of Sindh, Ghulam Abbas Jafferi, was confronted with
the question that he had maintained that he had visited the scene of the
shooting in Clifton on Sept 21 with the then DIG (crimes), Masood Paracha,
while the latter in his evidence had earlier deposed that he had visited the site
for the first time on Sept 23.
The AIG was being examined before a three-member tribunal inquiring into
the death of Mir Murtaza Bhutto and seven others. In a 17-page statement, Mr
Jafferi claimed that he had visited the site the next day and had seen the area
cleaned up. "Lastly, I want to mention that on 21. 9. 1996, I visited the site of
incident which was neither preserved nor secured by the then investigating
officer", he said in his report which he read out before the tribunal for more
than two hours, correcting the typing errors.
The witness made many suggestions in his post-script, to which the chairman
of the tribunal, a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid,
remarked that he (the witness) should have made a statement of facts on the
basis of what had been asked to be done by the referring authority, not
suggestions or his personal observations.
The tribunal read out the statement earlier given by the then DIG Crimes
Masood Paracha, now in the Drugs Control Division in Peshawar, and
reminded the witness that the then DIG could not have visited the site of
shooting earlier than Sept 23, because he had received the orders for
investigations on that day.
The clothes of Mir Murtaza were also highlighted in the evidence, as the
police officer stated in the post-script that the shirt of Mir Murtaza had
particles of sand at its backside which showed that the deceased had been
lying on the ground.
The tribunal comprising two other members, Justice Amanullah Abbasi and
Justice Dr Ghous Mohammad, observed that this comment and observation
was uncalled for and beyond the task given to him (the witness). He was then
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