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| India-Pakistan |
| SC assigns Anti-Corruption DG to investigate incident |
| 2010-08-21 |
| A two-member Supreme Court bench on Friday assigned a former judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC), presently posted as the director general of the Anti-Corruption Punjab, Kazim Malik, to hold a detailed inquiry into the brutal killing of two teenage brothers in the presence of police in Sialkot and submit a report within seven days. The bench consisting Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday was hearing a suo motu case pertaining to the alleged murder of two brothers -- 15-year-old Hafiz Mughees and 19-year-old Hafiz Muneeb -- by a mob in the presence of local police in Sialkot. The court directed the authorities to arrest the accused persons involved in the case as early as possible and submit a report along with the progress of both cases on a daily basis to the SC registrar for the court's perusal in chambers. During the hearing, the court said, "The footage shown by TV channels in the courtroom on multimedia screen indicates that a few people had ganged up on the boys and were beating them mercilessly in the presence of police officers." "The brutality extended to the extent that after their death, their dead bodies were dragged and hanged on the pillars of an overhead water tank situated next to the office of Rescue 1122," the court noted. The DPO concerned told the court that after receipt of notice from the SC through the PPO, Rana Muhammad Ilyas, the SHO Sadar Sialkot was arrested, whereas 12 other police officers named in the FIR had still not been arrested. The court noted that prima facie the footage shown by TV channels indicates height of brutality in a civilised society wherein two young persons had been mercilessly beaten to death in the presence of the police and so many other people were standing there and watching, and nobody, including the police officials whose duty was to protect lives, had the moral courage to intervene to save the two youngsters. "Prima facie, we are not satisfied with the conduct of the DPO and SP (Investigation). It indicates their total failure to maintain law and order otherwise no one would have dared to take the law into their own hands. In such a situation it was the duty of the police officers/official concerned to intervene and should have made efforts to save their lives. The presence of police officers prima facie suggests their involvement in the incident as well, otherwise being in the police force it was their duty to maintain law and order instead of becoming silent spectators to such a horrific incident," the court noted. |
| Posted by:Fred |