LAHORE, July 21: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed an AAG to furnish it with the complete investigation record of the Sialkot jail incident that left four civil judges dead on July 25, 2003.

The court was hearing an appeal moved by relatives of the deceased judges against the bail granted to 19 police officers, including DIG Mohammad Iqbal, Sialkot DPO Amjad Javed Saleemi, Gujrat DPO Gujrat Raja Munawwar Husain and 12 Elite Force personnel, and two doctors, the then medical superintendent of the Allama Iqbal Memorial Hospital, Dr Firdaus Shah, and surgeon Dr Sajid Husain.

A division bench of the high court, comprising Justice Khawaja Mohammad Sharif and Justice Rustam Ali Malik, directed Additional Advocate-General Mohammad Hanif Khatana to ensure that all three reports based on the investigation were produced at the next hearing on July 27.

The counsel for the appellants, Advocate Syed Ghulam Abbas Bokhari, submitted that none of the investigation reports had been made public so far. Referring to certain incidents during the firing in Sialkot prison, the counsel contended that there were all indications that the four civil judges were murdered intentionally by people who resorted to indiscriminate firing.

An additional sessions judge and six civil judges were taken hostage by a group of five hardened criminals when they were on a routine inspection of the jail. They were demanding their transfer to another jail.

Several hundred policemen, headed by DIG Mohammad Iqbal, first tear-gassed the criminals and then resorted to indiscriminate firing resulting in the death of four civil judges, including Saghher Anwar, Shahid Munir Ranjha and Asif Mumtaz Cheema.

The counsel, father of one of the deceased judges, Syed Shehryar Bokhari, submitted that DIG Mohammad Iqbal ordered tear-gassing and firing despite the fact that the district and sessions judge of Sialkot had not permitted him to do so.

He submitted that two of the five hardened criminals who took the civil judges hostage, had surrendered with their hands on the head. According to Advocate Bokhari, the incident was investigated by the Pakistan Rangers and a senior government officer, Safdar Javed.

The chief justice of the Lahore High Court also ordered a judicial inquiry and nominated the then registrar Abdur Rashid Sheikh, who was later elevated to the bench. He submitted that none of the reports had so far been made public.

Opposing the bail granted to the accused by the presiding officer of a Gujranwala anti-terrorism court, Syed Iftikhar Husain Shah, on April 24 this year, the counsel submitted that the inquiry suffered from a number of anomalies.

The police nominated a number of the accused people as witnesses, ignoring heirs of the deceased judges. He contended that there was no independent witness which showed that the police intended to cover up their offence of indiscriminate firing on the unfortunate day.

He submitted that those challaned for murder could not be granted bail before arrest under the law. Advocate Bokhari, who was assisted by advocates Tahir Farooq Cheema and Imtiaz Bajwa, submitted that the bail was granted under the Criminal Procedure Code whereas the accused were charged under the Anti-terrorist Act.

The act, he submitted, provided that any offence carrying death sentence, 10-year imprisonment or transportation for life, was not bailable. He submitted that the anti-terrorist court presiding officer had illegally granted bail to the accused.

As for the three investigation reports, the counsel claimed that responsibility was fixed on police and the doctors. Police wanted to hush up the crime and that was why none of the reports had seen the light of day.

On a court question, the counsel submitted that the Safdar Javed report focused on the doctors of Allama Iqbal Memorial Hospital, Sialkot. It may be mentioned here that relatives of the deceased civil judges had also questioned Judge Syed Iftikhar Husain Shah's conduct of trial on the basis that he had supervised the investigation and did not qualify to try the same case.

The question was raised through a writ petition pending adjudication in the Lahore High Court, which submitted that they wanted to summon the judge as a witness at some stage of the trial. The petition requested that the trial should be conducted by the high court.