The fact-finding mission constituted to probe the killing of five Chechens in Quetta’s Kharotabat area said in its report on Saturday that nothing suspicious had been found from the victims by police officials who searched their hired vehicle, except two bottles of shampoo for which the foreigners were detained for 40 minutes prior to their killing The National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights had appointed the fact-finding mission on June 14. The mission’s report, which will be submitted to the NA committee on June 29, is available with Pakistan Today. Referring to the briefing given by Quetta CCPO Ghalib Ahmed to the fact-finding mission, the report said the victims’ taxi was stopped at Naka Sabeel for checking, just as it entered the provincial metropolis.
“During the car’s search, police found nothing except two shampoo bottles, which were suspected to be containing illegal substances. The passengers were detained there for 30-40 minutes,” the report said. It said the victims were asked to go to the Airport police station in the same taxi along with policemen for further search of their luggage. On the way to the police station, “the policemen became suspicious as they saw a hand grenade with the suspects and ordered the taxi driver to stop the car. As the car came to a halt, the suspects ran away,” the CCPO told the mission, according to the report.
Referring to the taxi driver’s statement, the report said, “Another thing the taxi driver said was that he was pressurised by the SHO and other policeman who accompanied him to the Airport police station to state that he saw a hand grenade in one of the victims’ hands.”
The taxi driver told the mission that he was told by the policemen that by giving this statement, they (policemen) would get promotions while they would gratify him (taxi driver) instead of causing him harm.
Referring to the statement of the doctor, the report said, “He (the doctor) explained that if the victims had a hand grenade with them and if that exploded, it would have blown them into pieces. Also, the pin in the finger of the victim was put by police to mislead the public, if that was so, why was there no pin on the victim’s finger when they were brought for autopsy,” the report quoted the doctor.
Frontier Constabulary (FC) Balochistan Inspector General Major General Obaidullah Khattak said admitted before the mission that the incident could have been averted if the police and the FC had handled the matter wisely.
According to the report, the mission was also shown some jewellery, passports, SIMs, MP3 players and US and Pakistani currency notes recovered from the victims after their killing. In its conclusion, the mission suspected that the hand grenade explosion was a “drama staged” by police. The mission concluded that police appeared to mishandle the situation that created panic and resultant deaths of the five people.
