PAKISTAN: A 13 year old son of an eye witness abducted to stop him from giving evidence in court

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a minor child, 13 years old, has been abducted, allegedly by members of an ethnic minority political group, the Muttaihida Quami Movement (MQM),  to prevent his father, Mr. Ashiq Chandio,  from giving evidence before an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC). 

It is alleged that henchmen of this political party – that wields power in the urban areas of the Sindh Province – have threatened Mr. Chandio that if he provides evidence in Court regarding the killing of a large number of people including three policemen by the members of the same political party, that he and all his family members will face dire consequences including death. Mr. Ashiq Chandio, has been consistently lobbying the Sindh Government about these threats; however, the Government has conspicuously ignored the threats in order to appease this political party to obtain support towards their weak governance policies. According to Mr Chandio, the Lieutenant General of the Pakistan Rangers himself has called him and informed that the “… rangers are doing everything to find his son, but had cautioned him not to make too much noise and not to approach the media in which case they will not be able to find his son”

As per the information received, it is feared that the abducted child may have already been killed since Mr. Chandio, disregarding all threats, attended Court and provided evidence with regard to the killings. Following the Court proceedings he held two press conferences accusing the MQM and its leader Mr. Altaf Hussain of the abduction of his child in order to threaten him against providing any evidence to the Court.  Meanwhile, Mr Chandio, every night since, has been visiting the mortuaries in search for his son’s body and to no avail.

Mr. Chandio’s nephew too was abducted in the recent past, when he was first called as a witness in this hearing. His nephew was kept in custody at different private torture cells for two and half months where he was severely tortured. In this instance the abductors were released with direct support from a Federal Minister and a Provincial Minister, depicting clearly the stand of the Sindh Government in consistently siding with the perpetrators of such gross atrocities. 

CASE NARRATIVE:

Master Mohabat Ullah Chandio, the 13 year old son of Ashiq Ali Chandio has been abducted allegedly by several henchmen of the MQM political party that has a majority number of seats in the Provincial Assembly governing the urban cities of the Sindh Province. On the 20th Friday, February 2015, at approximately 23.45 p.m., around eight persons including a woman have arrived in a car and two motor cycles at the residence of Mr. Ashiq Ali Chandio and as his 13 years on Mohabat Ullah, had come out of the house, the unidentified persons have grabbed him, handled him into the car and drove away. The family realized too late, that the son was being abducted when they heard his screams for a couple of minutes. At the time of this incident Mr. Chandio had not been at home. He had been sent to an undisclosed location to protect him, and for him to be able to appear in Court as an eye witness the very next day. Mr. Chandio was to appear as main witness in the legal proceedings of the case against members of the MQM for the alleged murder of more than 20 persons including five policemen at the Chakra Goth – where the majority of the residents were from Sindhi ethnic community. 

The murders took place in August 2011, when a fight broke out between two ethnic groups at Chakra Goth, Korangi, in Karachi. On 19th August 2011, when a party of reserved police had arrived in a private bus to quell the fight between the two groups, the bus they were travelling in was attacked with heavy gunfire and resulted in the killing of three police officials and 28 other officials were injured including a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). During this initial attack one of the attackers was also killed in counter fire. In the aftermath, clashes escalated in that same month and more than 20 persons were killed by these attackers who freely roamed the streets using fire arms at their will and the Government did nothing to stop these killings – and it was strongly alleged that the said political party was behind these attacks and were also members of the coalition Government.

According to reports, on 22nd August 2015, the house of Mr. Ashiq Ali Chandio, the activist from the Sindh Dost Party, was attacked following which he lodged a First Information Report (FIR) at the Zaman Town police station, in Korangi, alleging that 50 to 60 armed persons belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) attacked his house with heavy weapons. He said that the attackers killed two persons, Mohammad Hasan and Mohammad Salman, and injured Rizwan, Babar, Sikandar, Bashir, and Mohammad Arib. He alleged that the attackers also kidnapped his nephew, Shahzad, and torched more than 10 vehicles in the area.

Mr. Ashiq along with five other persons was named as witnesses in the case before the Anti-Terrorism Court with regard to these attacks in Chakra Goth to identify the attackers in an identification parade.  After being named an eye witness in the case, Mr Chandio had continuously received death threats and threats of abduction from what he believed to be MQM activists.  On 21st February 2015, he was due to appear in the Anti-Terrorist Court, in Court Number 5 to provide eye witness testimony. As per reports the judges too had received death threats not to hear this case. Further, the case was being heard inside the jail premises, to prevent another terrorist attack when moving the prisoners to the Court premises for the hearing. One day following the abduction of his son, Mr Chandio, determined and yet appeared in Court to provide evidence, however the court was adjourned and a date was fixed for the next hearing to record statement of the witnesses.

The criminal justice system in Pakistan is on the verge of a total collapse due to the rampant corruption in the judiciary and the police. The witnesses who are brave enough to testify before the Courts do so at the risk of their and their family member’s very lives. The Witness Protection Bill that was unanimously passed two years ago is to-date, not been implemented. This law was meant  to provide protection to witnesses, enabling them to give evidence in criminal proceedings, but not a single witness has so far been provided any protection whatsoever, under this law. Instead, witnesses are blatantly denied the very basic protection, resulting in low conviction and escalating crime rate.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Ashiq Chandio is one such witness who has decided to raise his voice against such terror and extortionists who are allegedly supported and abetted by a major political party in the Sindh Province. Many of the party’s workers are alleged to have been involved in extortion and murder of businessmen and politicians who dared to opposed them. Even if caught, these criminals are acquitted for want of evidence as ‘no one dares’ to testify against them. Wali Khan Babar a reporter for GEO news was murdered in a drive-by shooting incident for speaking against the party. Eyewitnesses were killed ‘en masse’ in order to wipe out evidence of murders. According to various media reports all five eyewitnesses to the investigation of Babar’s case had been murdered in cold blood, one after the other. The victims included two policemen, a brother of one police officer and an informer linked to the case. All have been shot dead, mostly in drive-by shootings. The Last victim had already identified 4 out of 5 murderers of Wali Khan Babar and was called out and shot dead outside his home.

Mr Chandio is the key witness of the Chakra Goth incident where a police van came under fire from 30 to 40 armed gunmen, causing death of three policemen on the spot and injuring 28 other policemen. The police charged Kamran Madhuri, Suhail Commando, Jabbar Bengali alias Javed, Mustaq Khatri, and Abdullah with murder, attempted murder. The witnesses who identified the suspects were afforded no protection whatsoever and yet, they braved constant threads to their own lives to testify in Court. Just the night before he was to testify Aashiq Chandio’s son Muhabat Ullah Chandio was abducted from his home. The aggrieved father is being pressurized not to testify in Court. Mr Chandio while speaking at the press conference threatened to stage a protest. Mr Chandio alleges that his son was abducted to silence him, and alleged that in order to protect their men the MQM has kidnapped his son.

According to The Express Tribune of September 08, 2011, the police suffered a setback in the Chakra Goth bus attack case when a judge released two of the three suspects on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence against them. The only good news was that they still have seven days to question the third man, notorious target killer, Kamran Madhuri.

Madhuri’s case too has taken a few twists and turns. He was brought injured to the Jinnah hospital after ‘an alleged police encounter’ at Chakra Goth 19th August. Till now even though he was a strong suspect, Madhuri was not made part of the case – that is until the Chief Justice asked why the police had not nominated him. Now the police have sought and been granted remand by a judge of an anti-terrorism court. 

Police sources allege that Madhuri is a hardened militant of a major political party in Karachi and has committed murders in the city at its behest. According to his national identity card (No. 42201-0775780-9), his real name is Kamran Khan and he was born on March 22, 1980. His wife, infamously known as Babli, is also a wanted person and is said to be involved in several murder cases of her own. Babli, whose real name is Nighat Afsheen, remains a fugitive.

According to previous reports, Madhuri’s sister and nephew were picked up from the court premises where police had brought him in order to seek remand, but the SSP East has denied that anyone has been secretly taken away by his men.

Zaman Town police had charged Mansoor, Nadeem Akhtar, Shahid, Asif, Furqan, Saghir, Iqbal, Aqeel, Shakir, Shahid Miller, Junaid, Raees, Saleem, Abdul Hakeem, Iqbal, Saleem and Atif and 15 to 16 other unidentified men with murder, attempt to murder, police encounter, rioting and terrorism in the Chakra Goth case.

However, the Administrative Judge of the Anti-Terrorism Court Justice Maqbool Baqar ordered the release of Hakim and Atif on the grounds of insufficient evidence provided by the police. Police alleged that Hakim and Atif were the main culprits who had opened fire on the private van transporting the Sindh Reserve Police, who had been summoned by the police in Korangi to stop a clash between two heavily armed groups, each backed by leading political parties.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write the letters to the authorities to immediately find the whereabouts of the 13 year old Mohabat Ullah Chandio and provide the protection to the witnesses in the Chakra Goth case. Please urge the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister of Sindh, Inspector General and DG rangers to apprehend and bring the abductors before a court of law and ensure that a fair trial is conducted. 

The AHRC writes a separate letter to the Chairperson of the Committee of the Rights of the Child calling for the Committee’s intervention into this matter.

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