The police have reportedly declared the death of Qari Noor Muhammad, Khateeb of Jamia Masjid Mubarik, a 'blind murder' and registered a case against unknown murderers on a report of Police constables instead of the application moved by his father-in-law in the presence of local leaders of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).
Kotwali police had earlier claimed that a case No 217/2004 had been registered under section 16 MPO against Qari Noor Muhammad. But later the police threw the matter in the cold storage and asked the deceased's heirs and local leaders of the MMA to lodge a formal complaint so that a case could be instituted against responsible persons.
Deceased's father-in-law Qari Muhammad Tayyab filed a written complaint with the local police claiming that a heavy police contingent, accompanied by some unknown people in civvies, raided the Jamia Masjid Mubarak on the Dijkot Road, on the night of August 13.
The team entered the mosque and its adjacent seminary and arrested Qari Noor, MMA City President Qari Obaidullah Gormani and Imamuddin, a student of Noor, and shifted them to some unknown place.
The three detainees were tortured in separate cells between August 14 and August 18 due to which Qari Noor died.
After the receipt of the application from Qari Tayyab, the police faced serious pressure for registration of a case due to flaws and contradictions in the claims of police and the contents of application.
A police source said the murder case of Qari Noor had been registered against unknown persons in which two policemen had been made the complainants. The two officials claimed that they found an injured lying at Aminpur Bazar, who was shifted to the Allied Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. The body was later identified as of Qari Noor, Khateeb of the Jamia Masjid Mubarak, Dijkot Road.
The FIR had been entered into police record on August 18. However, the police sealed the FIR and also shifted the register to the custody of a senior police officer to keep the matter secret.
Meanwhile, MMA District President Sardar Zafar Husain has claimed that he will take to streets in case the local police fail to register case on the application moved by Qari Tayyab within next couple of days.
He claimed that the police had deliberately concealed the facts and registered a blind murder case of Qari Noor to save the skin of personnel of an intelligence agency and other accused involved in the kidnapping and murder of Qari Noor.
Meanwhile, opposition leader in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman has urged the district police to entertain the application of Qari Noor's father-in-law. He was talking to newsmen at the Jamia Masjid Mubarak after attending a condolence reference for Qari Noor last night.
The Maulana, who is a Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leader, demanded that the rulers should tender apology for the killing of innocent people in Wana otherwise, the government would have to face anger of the tribal people.
"The government is playing with fire in Wana just to please its foreign dictators," he said.