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Massacre survivor released, re-arrested, released again

By Hasan Mansoor

KARACHI: The only witness of the September 25 murders in which seven workers of the Christian charity Institute for Peace and Justice were gagged and shot dead, was arrested from the corridors of the Sindh High Court after a division bench had ordered his immediate release on Tuesday.

Robin Piranditta’s wife Elizabeth had filed a petition in the Sindh High Court requesting the release of her husband, who she said had been in police custody unlawfully.

On October 8, a division bench of the Sindh High Court consisting of Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Amir Hani Muslim asked the court assistant registrar to visit Piranditta and report whether the police had tortured him in custody, as his wife had alleged.

The official reported to the court on Monday that he saw marks of torture on his body.

During the proceedings of the case on Tuesday, Sindh Advocate General Raja Qureshi submitted an order of the provincial home department saying that Piranditta had been taken into protective custody. The court rejected the document, saying it should have been produced much earlier, because the witness had been in police custody since the incident. The court ordered him to be released immediately.

While Piranditta was coming out of the courtroom with his lawyers, a police team intercepted him. They grabbed him and dragged him to a police van parked inside the court premises, threw him inside and dashed away. The police beat up and abused his lawyers when they tried to prevent their client being taken away. One of the lawyers, Ms Noor Naz Agha, described the action as kidnapping and a manifestation of police brutality.

“The police have proved that they are the worst perpetrators (of violence),” she said. She announced she had filed a petition of contempt of court. Elizabeth Piranditta has filed a petition challenging the arrest of her husband, naming the Sindh home secretary, the inspector general of police and the senior superintendent of the police Crimes Intelligence Department as respondents.

Raja Qureshi told the court on behalf of the government that the person in custody was the eyewitness of a major incident and his protection was the state’s responsibility.

“Allowing an eyewitness to wander openly is dangerous to his own life. It is important to keep him secure, it is favourable for his own safety,” Qureshi maintained.

Later in the evening, the police released Mr Piranditta and when Capital City Police Officer Asad Jehangir was contacted about the brutal rearrest, he told Daily Times on Tuesday night the police released him after “completing the formalities. But, we will be questioning him in future to solve the case,” he said.

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