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Pakistani court orders murder case registration in activists’ killing

Islamabad : A court in Pakistan Monday ordered registration of cases in the killing of opposition activists during the anti-government protests in Islamabad, lawyers said.

Clashes erupted between the demonstrators and the riot police when the protestors tried to march to the Prime Minister’s House. At least two protestors were killed and some 500 people, including dozens of police men, were injured in the clashes Aug 31 and Sep 1.

Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT), led by religious leader Tahirul Qadri, had approached the court to register cases of the killing of its two workers in police action.

The PAT, in its application, had requested the court to register murder cases against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, two federal ministers, the Islamabad police chief and several more personalities.

A local court in Islamabad, in a short order, instructed the police to take necessary action on the application in line with the law, Xinhua reported.

A police officer said they would decide on filing an appeal against the order after a detailed verdict was issued.

The applicant held the prime minister, the interior minister, the defence minister, the railways minister, chief commissioner of Islamabad, the police chief in Islamabad and five other people.

The police told the court in a report that the people mentioned in the application had nothing to do with the police action and that there had been no evidence about their involvement in the incident.

A government defence lawyer said the police did not have arms and they had only used rubber bullets to deal with the emergency situation.

A lawyer for the petitioner said the police had “opened direct firing on the demonstrators and also used expired tear gas”.

He questioned the police action when the government had deployed army troops for the protection of important buildings.

It is the second time a judge has ordered registration of murder cases against the prime minister and several other ministers.

Last month, a court had ordered registration of murder case against the prime minister and 20 more people over the killing of a dozen PAT activists in the eastern city of Lahore in June.

A former Supreme Court judge, Saeed uz Zaman Siddiqui, said registration of cases did not mean the persons named were guilty of a crime.