ISLAMABAD – Conflicting accounts of two witnesses have raised doubts about the facts narrated in the first information report (FIR) lodged against the murder federal minister Shahbaz Bhatti, as one of the witness included in the report told Pakistan Today that he was not present in Islamabad at the time of the incident. It has been recorded in the FIR that the minister’s brother Sikandar Bhatti and his nephew Rehan Bhatti were following Shahbaz Bhatti in another car when he was attacked. However, Rehan told Pakistan Today that both of them were in their ancestral village. “We rushed to Islamabad when the minister’s driver Gul Sher informed us about the incident,” he said.
The FIR also said Sikandar and Rehan were following Shahbaz in MPA Tahir Naveed’s car. Tahir said they were all at office. But when told that the FIR said they were following Bhatti’s car, he immediately changed his stance, saying, “Yes, we were following the minister in a separate car at the time of the incident.”
According to the FIR registered by the Industrial Area police station, Sikandar told police that and Rehan reached his brother’s house in sector I-8/3 around 10:30am on Wednesday. “When we reached there, MPA Tahir Naveed was also present at Shahbaz Bhatti’s house,” Sikandar stated.
According to his statement, Shahbaz was going to attend a cabinet meeting. “Shahbaz had asked us to follow him in Tahir’s car and when we left the house at around 10:55am, his brother’s car was intercepted by a white Suzuki Mehran on street 72,” he said. Sikandar said two men came out of the car holding AK-47 rifles, while a third had a pistol in his hand. “The person with the pistol pointed his gun at us, while the other two opened indiscriminate fire on Shahbaz Bhatti’s car,” Sikandar said in the FIR. He said after the firing, the assailants got into their car, dropping pamphlets near his car.
“Later, we went towards the minister’s car and took him to Shifa International Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead,” he stated. He said his brother was fighting for the rights of minorities, and spoke against the misuse of discriminatory section 295B/C. “He (Shahbaz) also raised the issue of Asia Bibi and was threatened several times. Various religious parties criticised him as well,” he said.
