ISLAMABAD: Surprises, twists and turns was the order of the day on Monday when the Supreme Court resumed hearing in the March 3 district court complex attack case.

The reader of the court of slain additional district and sessions judge Rafaqat Ahmed Khan Awan accused police of coercing him into giving evidence corroborating the claim of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali that the judge had been killed by the bullets accidentally fired by his own guard.

A visibly shaken Malik Khalid Noon told the court that he was being harassed by Assistant Superintendent of Police A.R. Aziz to give a favourable statement or he would be booked under the terrorism act.

On the court’s query, the reader admitted that police were asking him to state that none of the assailants had come inside the courtroom and that the personal guard killed the judge in panic firing. He also claimed that he himself had seen the attackers entering the courtroom to fire at the judge.

On Friday last also, gunman Babar Hussain denied before the special judge of the anti-terrorism court, Atiqur Rehman, that he had killed the judge.

But this was not all.

Retired Col Safdar Hussain, the brother of the slain judge, dropped a bombshell when he claimed that whatever the reader was saying was a white lie.

“I have myself inspected the crime scene and have found the courtroom intact without even a single bullet holes in the walls or doors which proved that the bullets were fired by one of the four individuals present inside the court — the reader, the guard, an advocate and the judge,” he said, adding that everything was planned and executed in an immaculate manner.

“He has spoiled the entire case,” remarked senior counsel Mohammad Ikram Chaudhry who was present in the courtroom, while another lawyer commented outside the court that the judge’s brother used to be a staff member of the Sharifs.

The two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani said the statement of the judge’s brother could prejudice the ongoing investigation because he was not an eyewitness, besides the court would also not comment on his remarks in the interest of justice and fair investigation.

On Monday, the statement of the interior minister briefly came under discussion in the court when President of the Rawalpindi Bar Association Ehsanuddin said the minister’s utterances would affect the investigation.

The court slapped a blanket ban on issuing any statement that may prejudice the investigation and ordered Interior Secretary Shahid Khan to constitute an independent team of investigators headed by a DIG and comprising upright and competent officers from police and FIA.

The court said that since the role of Islamabad police might be the subject of probe the job should be handed over to this team to complete it preferably in two weeks.

Currently SSP Dr Mohammad Rizwan is heading the joint investigation team.

The interior secretary will also examine the possibility of enhancing the compensation from Rs500,000 for the deceased family since the lawyers’ representatives were not satisfied with the amount the government had announced.

The court asked the secretary to consider giving employment to a son or a daughter of the officials who had died in the incident.Meanwhile, the inquiry initiated on a directive of the Islamabad High Court’s chief justice will continue and its report will be submitted before the Supreme Court.

The court rejected a report submitted by IGP Sikander Hayat, saying that it neither provided any information about the security plan of the complex nor explained whether the policemen had chased the attackers or made any effort to stop them from escaping. It expressed surprise over the report that two gunmen had attacked the court premises.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, the other member of the bench, deplored that police had yet to comprehend that urban terrorism was different from an ordinary village murder where police reached the scene after about eight hours.

During the proceedings, a lawyer saw American hand behind the incident. He said the literary meaning of ‘Ahrarul Hind’, which had claimed responsibility for the attack, was black cat that was close to disbanded ‘Blackwaters’.