Say drone attack did not take place in Secretariat jurisdiction hence it could not start case proceedings
The Islamabad Police on Thursday dismissed a pending case against former Central Investigation Agency (CIA) station chief Jonathan Banks over his role in the death of two tribesmen in a US drone attack.
On April 7, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued an order to register case against the American official in relation to a December 2009 attack by a US drone which reportedly killed at least three people.
At first, police registered an FIR at the Secretariat Police Station upon IHC’s directions but discarded it few minutes later.
The federal police took the position that the drone attack did not take place in the jurisdiction of the police station in Islamabad where the case had been registered and hence, it could not start proceedings in the case. Police subsequently transferred the case to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat.
Karim Khan, a native of Mirali, North Waziristan, had filed an application in the IHC in 2010, seeking registration of an FIR with the Secretariat Police Station against Banks for killing his son and brother in 2009 drone attack. The police station had earlier refused Karim’s request to register the FIR.
Khan had stated in the application that his brother Asif Iqbal and son Zaheenullah were killed in a drone strike in 2009 when Banks was the CIA’s Islamabad station chief but no FIR had been registered against the American official so far.
In the previous hearing of the case at IHC, the IGP had shown reluctance in registering the FIR against the ex-CIA station chief since he was of the view that it could harm Pakistan and America’s diplomatic relations. He had also maintained that the Foreign Office was also a party to the matter and it was important to know its position.
However, the court had directed the IGP for the third time to submit a compliance report after registering an FIR against ex-CIA station chief Banks and his legal adviser John A Rizzo.
Banks left Pakistan in 2010 after his cover was blown when Karim Khan threatened to sue the CIA and others for $ 500 million over the deaths of his 18-year-old son and brother in the December 31, 2009 drone strike.
