Conflicting statements from police and the medical board that conducted the post-mortem of Additional Session Judge Rafaqat Awan have fuelled confusion as to who actually shot the Judge during a terrorist attack on Islamabad's district and sessions courts and the number of shots fired at him.
A post-mortem report (a copy of which is also available with Business Recorder) and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan are on the same page with respect to their conclusions: judge Rafaqat Awan received three bullet shots, an account disputed by the police which claims that he received two shots.
According to Police statement, the gunman of Additional Session Judge Rafaqat Awan told a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that he fired two bullet shots in a bid to challenge terrorists. The accused guard said the Additional Session Judge and he were trying to stop terrorists from entering the chamber when he (the guard) accidentally fired two bullet shots at point blank range; as a result of which, Awan was hit in his chest and arm that led to his death.
Joint Investigation team (JIT) comprising the officials of four agencies has relied on its own observations at the site of the incident, eye-witness accounts and the post-mortem report. However, some senior medico legal officers (MLOs) told Business Recorder that the post-mortem did not ascertain the make and model of the gun through which bullets were fired from ie whether it was a Kalashnikov or a pistol. "We can only determine the injuries caused by bullets," said the MLOs on condition of anonymity.
According to the post-mortem report, prepared by a three-member board - Dr Mohammad Naseer chairman, Dr Nasreen Butt and Dr Farrukh Kamal - the judge received three bullet shots and died due to rupture of heart caused by a firearm injury. The post-mortem report says: "firearm entry wound on the left side of the chest laterally in middle 1/3rd with blackening and charring marks present measuring 1.5x1cm in the 5th intercostals space corresponding with the holes in the cloth; and exit wound on the back of the left side of chest measured 1x1 cm laterally corresponding with holes in the clothes."
It further says "firearm entry wound on the dorsal aspect of upper 1/3rd of left forearm measured 2x1 cm with no blackening and charring marks corresponding with holes in the clothes and the exit wound was on the ventral aspect of left elbow measuring 5x3x4 cm." Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday told the National Assembly that judge Rafaqat Ahmed Khan Awan was inadvertently killed by his own guard and that he received three bullet shots.
A senior police official said that police have semi-automatic pistols, which cannot be fired twice or thrice inadvertently as you need to pull the trigger again to fire another bullet. However, he said that forensic experts would examine the pistol in possession of the guard to ascertain whether or not he had converted his semi-automatic pistol into an automatic gun.
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