Senate body formed to probe Kharotabad incident

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Chairman Senate Jan Muhammad Jamali Tuesday constituted a special committee of the House to probe into reports of destroying evidence of Kharotabad incident in which personnel of security forces killed five foreigners including three women.

The committee headed by the law minister and comprising members of the upper house from Balochistan and Sindh would present its report in 10 days. The committee was formed following a walkout staged by journalists to protest against abduction and torture of Jamal Tarkai, cameraman, in Quetta who appeared before the inquiry commission on Kharotabad incident as witness and produced footage showing a woman raising hands, apparently to surrender herself.

Senators Gul Muhammad Lot and Azam Swati after convincing media to end the boycott speaking on floor of the House said the incident took place in less than a week after chairman Senate’s ruling to provide protection to mediapersons who exposed the killing of five Chechens near Quetta and one young man in Karachi by law enforcing agencies.

The House was also informed that the doctor who performed post mortem of the victims of Kharotabad incident was also picked up and tortured. The opposition in the Senate also staged a token walkout as a protest against intimidation of the journalists and excesses of the law enforcing agencies against the Senate chairman for not suspending his decision regarding nomination of Abdul Ghafoor Haideri as opposition leader.

Leader of the House Nayyar Bokhari, while terming efforts to destroy evidence as criminal act, said chief secretary Sindh had already been directed to take action against those making threatening calls to the media persons who exposed Sarfaraz Shah’s killing by Rangers in Karachi.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the House Abdul Ghafoor Haidri lashed out at the PML-N accusing it of indulging horse trading saying they were trying to sabotage the democratic process by giving threats to move the Supreme Court of challenging the supremacy of the parliament and said the decision to go to the court on an internal matter of the parliament had exposed real face of PML-N. “Is the Supreme Court there to serve the PML-N alone”, Haideri questioned.