A confession alone can’t solve Sabeen’s murder case

• Karachi police in a fix to establish link between Safoora Goth attack and Sabeen Mahmud’s murder
• Contrary to Aziz’s confession, cops fail to establish alleged murderer’s presence around T2F

The Karachi Police is in a fix to prove Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah’s statement asserting that the attackers of the Safoora Goth incident were also involved in the murder of social and human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud.

In a joint press conference on May 20, the Sindh CM had claimed that Saad Aziz was the mastermind of Mahmud’s murder and the main accused in the Safoora Goth carnage. It was claimed that Aziz, an IBA graduate, in a confessional statement accepted that he had murdered Mahmud along with his friend.

The Second Floor (T2F) Director Sabeen Mahmud was on her way home after attending a seminar on missing persons of Balochistan when some unidentified gunmen shot her dead near Defence Central Library traffic signal on April 24.

On June 10, Justice Saleem Raza Baloch of Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC)-III remanded three suspects in police custody till June 15 in four cases pertaining to murder of Mahmud and five policemen. The police submitted that during the examination of Safoora bus carnage, the suspects confessed killing Mahmud and the five policemen.

As the police started a focused investigation as far as Sabeen Mahmud murder case was concerned, they could not find Saad Aziz’s presence around T2F.

Per police, Aziz in his confessional statement has disclosed that he had attended many sessions in T2F and he was following the cafe’s director for a long time. Aziz told the police that he got registered with the T2F and regularly got the details of the scheduled sessions via email. Aziz further said that he had attended sessions on missing persons of Balochistan and killed Mahmud for issuing derogatory remarks against Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz and the Taliban.

However, when the police questioned T2F management and the regular attendants of the café about Aziz, none of them could identify him.

“As ATC remanded three Safoora bus carnage attackers in police custody, we launched a focused investigation as far as Sabeen Mahmud murder was concerned. There was no reason left to believe that Saad Aziz would not be involved in Mahmud’s murder after his confessional statement. However, the police are testifying the statement he made,” South DIG Dr Jameel Ahmed told Pakistan Today.

“We requested T2F administration and those who have attended sessions in the cafe regularly to identify him, but none of them can identify him. We are checking presence of Saad Aziz in the T2F session, and his movement around the cafe’s director with the available material,” he said.

Failing to establish Aziz’s presence at T2F through the cafe’s management and regular attendants, the police have requested the cafe administration to provide the footage of the cameras installed inside and outside T2F and recordings of some of the seminars to get Aziz’s confessional statement checked.

“The attackers of Safoora Goth are involved in 40 criminal cases lodged against them in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur police stations. They would be questioned in all criminal cases one by one,” Dr Ahmed added.