Why wali khan babar was killed

On March 1, , an anti-terrorism court in Kandhkot had awarded death sentence to two suspects including Faisal Mota in absentia, and life imprisonment to four accused in the case. Faisal Mota was arrested during a raid by the security forces at Nine-Zero, Karachi in Home Pakistan. Remembering Wali Khan Babar on his seventh death anniversary.

Photo: file. However, the almost decade-long hunt in a Karachi that has only recently slipped out of the hands of violent political elements shows that even high-level links do not always save journalists. In fact, there have been many in the media whose mysterious deaths have never been solved, indicating the reluctance of police to investigate out of fear that some prominent personalities might have had a role to play.

The arrest, then, is a welcome step, and one hopes that justice will be done to bring closure to the families of the many mediapersons killed at the hands of those who wanted to silence them forever.

Unity among journalists is key to attaining this goal. Wali Babar murder case Editorial Published June 19, Facebook Count. Twitter Share. Published in Dawn, June 19th, The prosecutors had worked very closely with the press in Karachi. This was, after all, the new civilian-led Pakistan and there was faith in the idea of transparency.

Their experience in Karachi explains much of how justice works in Pakistan, and what must be done to chip away at impunity. Here is their story. Born and raised in Sindh in the s, Buriro and fellow prosecutor Mobashir Mirza joined the PPP student wing at university during the turbulent anti-Zia days and never left the party.

They worked in pitiful offices with no copy machines, no computers, no phones, not even light bulbs, and certainly no protection. In they brought Time magazine to their rundown offices and explained that the government was obviously more interested in fighting terrorism through military means—and often through extrajudicial killings—than through the courts.

Nevertheless, they managed to prosecute many cases and, perhaps as important, to cultivate a transparent relationship with the Karachi press corps. The prosecutors were put to the test in with the highly publicized murder trial of six members of the Pakistan Rangers, a paramilitary security force overseen by the Interior Ministry.

On June 8, , just a month after the U. The video shows a civilian dragging Shah in front of the Rangers who then shoot him. It shows them all standing around as Shah begs for help, bleeding into unconsciousness.

Shah later died of his wounds. The video was broadcast on Pakistani television stations and went viral, causing an outcry throughout Pakistan. He called the director general of the Rangers and the inspector general of police and removed them from their posts. Interior Minister Malik, whose ministry oversaw the Rangers, issued a quick statement defending the men and saying that the young Shah had been armed with a pistol and was caught trying to rob someone.

The case nevertheless was transferred from the High Court to the anti-terrorism court, and the prosecutor general assigned it to Buriro and Mirza. By then the Karachi press corps had taken to the streets to demand justice because Shah was the brother of a colleague, Samaa TV crime reporter Syed Salik Shah.

He was now under threat and being pressured to pronounce his video a fake. Forced to leave Awaz, he went into hiding, moving from one house to the next. At that moment, Imtiaz Faran, the president of the Karachi Press Club, invited the two prosecutors to discuss the case. All these parks have a certain area where you park your car. His brother, Syed Sarfaraz Shah, happened to go to the park in the evening when an agent of the Rangers was collecting these illegal parking fees.

When Shah interfered with the agent—asking him, why are you taking illegal fees? The Rangers shot Shah without warning, Buriro said, and to cover their tracks filed what is known as a First Information Report.

A Joint Investigation Team, composed of civilian and military intelligence bodies, concluded in its report that the Rangers were innocent, that Shah was a thief, and that the case should be referred back to the regular courts. I am not your subordinate. This report has been made to save the Rangers in this case. You are going against the government and the agencies so be careful or you will face dire consequences in future.

Buriro decided just to do his job. He examined 20 witnesses including Soomro, who had filmed the murder. Buriro produced the video in open court.

The prosecutors withstood anonymous phone threats; they turned down bribes to let the case return to the regular courts, where it would fade away. The security apparatus was especially furious that uniformed men were being tried in the anti-terrorism court. The prosecutors were excoriated for not damaging evidence in the case as instructed. The year was a bad one for military officials. It was too much in the wake of Abbottabad to have uniformed officers on trial before civilian prosecutors affiliated with the PPP.

It was a matter of ghairat —honor. The judge sentenced one Ranger to death, and the others, including the civilian who had dragged Shah before the Rangers, to life in prison. But then we have the pushback that comes from the army and establishment. They managed to prosecute the Rangers. The trial concluded on August 12, The defense appealed. The experience of Buriro and Mirza was no exception. What type of training? Why did we give a briefing on the Rangers case in America? Why were you invited?

Buriro and Mirza were trouble for the army and the intelligence. They understood the relationship between the jihadis and the agencies, and they knew how uninterested the establishment was in prosecuting terrorists. Every week, the prosecutors would get a visit from ISI and military intelligence officers to discuss the terrorism cases, to find out how many were being tried, how many pending.

He is working for Islam. Why are you working against him? They should withdraw it. The MQM behaves with a little more subtlety but not much. As soon as Buriro inherited the case, he began getting anonymous threatening phone calls. Still, he studied the case thoroughly. If an offender or defendant gives a statement before the police in an interrogation, that statement is not admissible before the court of law. It has to be before a judicial magistrate. Memon said that till , four accused received life imprisonment in the case and another suspect Faisal Mota was arrested.

Memon said that Shani lived in several areas for five years and then shifted to Gulshan-e-Maymar area, where he was living with his family. The police official said the culprit has informed them about four murder cases so far and they will seek more information from him.

Both Kamran alias Shani and Faisal Mota were involved in the murder so they received death sentences, he added. The police official said that the case gained much highlight, as Babar was a crime reporter of Geo News and quite active in the field. Initially, there were eight accused and among them was one identified as Liaquat Ali, who was killed in an encounter and could not be tried under the law.

Memon said that several witnesses were murdered, including Rajab Bengali, who was killed in