by OMAR SIAL
(The murder of Shahbaz Bhatti, Minister for Minorities Affairs, Pakistan, has once again raised many questions including the role of the security forces, particularly of Wajid Durrani, IG, Police, Islamabad. This article was written after his appointment to the post in January this year. According to Omar Sial, the author of the post, the mainstream English newspapers of Pakistan refused to publish this at the time. Omar Sial is a Karachi based lawyer. His can be contacted at twitter and on his website.)
It does not come as a surprise that Wajid Durrani was made IG of Islamabad. His award from Asif Zardari for his role in Murtaza’s Bhutto murder was long overdue.
Wajid Durrani was in charge of all police operations on the night of September 20, 1996 when Murtaza was killed along with 7 of his companions. Wajid Durrani sat in the traffic police picket at 2 swords next to the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Clifton conducting the operation of the slaughter of 8 people including Murtaza, the brother of the then sitting Prime Minister and an elected member of the Parliament.
Durrani’s version has been that he did not want to kill 8 men; he just wanted to arrest the guards of Bhutto after humiliating Bhutto himself. Durrani by his own account admits to be in charge of operations that sad night of the 20th when 8 people were murdered in the presence of 500 policemen from 7 different police stations – yet – Durrani asserts that he is not the murderer. If Durrani covers a crime, he too commits a crime and should be given the same punishment which the man who pulled the trigger gets.
Bargad for more