LAHORE: Even after a week or so, the Lahore police investigating the high-profile case of slain PTI worker Ali Bilal could not find the much-needed CCTV footage as evidence to declare confidently that he died in a road accident.

The mysterious death of Ali Bilal also known as Zille Shah in the rally of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on March 8 had sparked strong protests in Lahore when the postmortem report identified 26 marks on his body and the PTI declared that he was allegedly tortured to death by police in custody.

PTI chief Imran Khan also expressed his outrage over the incident, bringing the PTI and PML-N on the verge of confrontation.

Following the tension increasing with every passing day, the Punjab police chief constituted a high-powered committee under the supervision of DIG Sadiq Ali Dogar which later declared that Ali died in a road accident.

PSCA head says place of accident out of camera coverage

Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Inspector General of Police Dr Usman Anwar in a joint press conference on March 11 shared findings of the inquiry committee declaring that the PTI worker’s death occurred in a road accident.

The police high-ups for the first time officially confirmed that they could not track down the much-needed CCTV footage related to the road accident.

Punjab Safe City Authority (PSCA) Managing Director Kamran Khan told this reporter on Wednesday that the police investigators examined nearly 50 CCTV cameras of both the authority and the Lahore Cantonment installed in the surroundings of Mian Mir overhead bridge from where the PTI worker was picked up by a black colour car on March 8.

“Out of nearly 50 CCTV footages, the one related to the road accident of Ali Bilal is still missing,” Kamran Khan confirmed to Dawn.

Referring to the findings of the police investigations, he said the accident occurred in the middle of the Mian Mir overhead bridge and that particular area was out of the coverage of the CCTV cameras of both the PSCA and the Lahore Cantonment.

He said the cameras were installed at both ends of the bridge and the police obtained the footages which spotted a black car carrying Ali Bilal before taking him to the hospital.

He said the suspects riding the car first made an attempt to take the critically injured PTI worker to the CMH [Combined Military Hospital] and on finding that the gate they tried to use for entry was actually meant for exit, they rushed back on the same bridge to reach the Services Hospital.

On both sides of the bridge, the MD PSCA said, the CCTV cameras tracked down the the black car.

“We deeply analysed all the CCTV footages at the [PSCA] head office which tracked down some PTI workers including Ali Bilal leaving the police prison van near Fortress Stadium,” Kamran Khan said.

The footages spotted Ali walking on the road towards Mian Mir overhead bridge while others probably hiring an autorickshaw to disappear from the scene.

The MD said the suspects, who shifted him to the hospital claimed that Zille Shah got critically injured in a road accident when they were driving on the middle of the Mian Mir bridge.

He said a team of the senior police experts later inspected the same point [of the accident] for the confirmation of the information of the suspected car riders.

During inspection, the police found out that there was a curve on the middle of the bridge and it was not on the radar of the CCTV cameras.

Some other police experts, however, declared that the findings of the police have ‘further confused’ the public saying the much-needed footage was the only irrefutable evidence the police required to negate the allegations of the PTI leadership that he was allegedly murdered in custody.

The police also couldn’t get statements of the eyewitnesses or any other important clue as an alternate option to prove that he died in the accident.

Referring to the PSCA’s findings, they said as the chance of obtaining the CCTV footage of road accident is extremely low, the police would have to face tough time to prove in the court that the allegations of PTI leaders were baseless.

The reason was that the PTI leaders and the lawyers were largely stressing to investigate the case in the light of the postmortem report which had spotted 26 marks on the body of Ali Bilal.

“I think the police [investigations] are groping in the dark,” one of the experts seeking anonymity said.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2023