KARACHI: Rangers Director General Maj Gen Bilal Akbar has directed sector commanders and law officers to expedite their work so that suspects allegedly involved in the killing of policemen, lawyers and prosecution witnesses can be brought to book through courts.

A detailed briefing was given in a meeting of Rangers officials about actions taken against the suspects involved in the killing of policemen, advocates and witnesses and those who facilitated the killings, said a spokesperson for the paramilitary force on Friday.

Maj Gen Bilal directed sector commanders to accelerate the pace of actions against such criminals and the facilitators. He also directed law officers and prosecutor to fulfil all legal requirements so that their cases could be presented before relevant courts.

Sources told Dawn that the issue of non-payment of compensation/ pay to the Rangers prosecutors and security of witnesses particularly in high-profile cases also came under deliberation in the meeting.

The sources said at least nine prosecutors whose services had been given to the Rangers by the Sindh government to pursue the cases had not received their salaries for the past five months.

Several prosecution witnesses, including a key witness to the murder of human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud, had also been killed in the metropolis.

A prosecutor told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the non-payment of salary appeared to be the outcome of a ‘tussle’ between the Rangers and the Sindh government, as the latter allegedly did not want the cases of suspects belonging to the PPP and MQM be pursued with enthusiasm before the ATCs, while the former insisted that the cases should be pursued on merit.

In order to get a ‘favourable’ decision from courts about the suspects belonging to the parties, the government had hired services of such lawyers whose affiliation with the two parties was known, he added.

A prosecutor said he heard that their issue of non-payment of salary had been resolved on Friday.

Earlier, the chief minister reportedly approved a summary to release Rs100 million for witness protection programme under which witnesses of high-profile cases were likely to be shifted to safe places.

On Nov 2, the Rangers had announced the launch of the ‘next phase’ of the Karachi operation in which the paramilitary force would arrest the killers of policemen, lawyers and prosecution witnesses. Over 265 policemen have been killed since the launch of the Rangers-led targeted operation in September 2013. Of them, 78 policemen were murdered over the past 10 months.

At least 54 advocates had been killed since 2007, according to representatives of legal fraternity. Of them, five advocates have been targeted this year only.

The legal fraternity had also held a protest demonstration outside the Rangers headquarters after the murder of another lawyer recently. Later in their meeting with the Rangers DG, it was decided that lawyers’ murder cases would be investigated properly while the cases declared ‘A-Class’ for want of evidences would be reopened.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2015

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