Following the delaying tactics of the organised criminal gang behind the murder of journalist Wali Khan Babar and the killing of six eye witnesses, one prosecutor and, the case has finally concluded, setting an example of being a case where the killers have been prosecuted and brought to justice.

Two main killers, still at large, have been awarded death sentence and four arrested are awarded life imprisonment.

Much has been written about the Wali Babar murder case in national and international media. But there are many unwritten and untold stories from the murder of the journalist in January 2011 to the conclusion of the first stage of the case on March 1, 2014.

Five eyewitnesses including Rajab Bangali, policeman Asif Rafiq, Naveed Tanoli brother of Inspector Shafiq Tanoli who arrested the accused and Haider Ali who identified the accused convicts before the court and one prosecutor Naimat Randhawa got murdered. Earlier, lawyers on behalf of the complainant Arshad Iqbal Cheema, Muhammad Khan Buriro and Mubashar Mirza had refused to proceed with the matter. All three lawyers fled abroad following death threats. Buriro and Mirza later returned to Pakistan after the passage of a year.

A policeman who investigated the murder case and arrested the absconding accused in Wali Babar case said those arrested are only foot soldiers or simple agents. “The mastermind and culprits who ordered these criminals to kill Babar are still safe and will remain so because of their influence.”

“The criminal gang who ordered the killings is not only operating in the country; it is also operating from other Western countries as well as South Africa, Sri Lanka and UAE. Everyone in the law enforcing agencies is aware of this mafia but they are silent due to political compulsions,” says another policeman on condition of anonymity.

The decision from the ATC in Wali Babar case is the first stage. The criminals behind this murder will challenge the decision in the high court and are capable of challenging the case in the apex court too.
The way Wali Babar was chased and killed, how the five eye witnesses and one prosecutor of the case were murdered one by one, and the support obtained by the arrested criminals proves it was not the act of any ordinary criminal gang but the work of a highly-organised mafia.

After the killings of five eye witnesses and one prosecutor of the case Naimat Randhawa, the Sindh Government on the pressure of journalist community requested the Sindh High Court to transfer the case from Karachi High Court to Anti-terrorism Court Khandkot.

The case was transferred on November 8, 2013 and the accused shifted to nearer District Jail Shikarpur on November 28, 2013 due to pressure of their supporters.

The case was defended by the defense counsel of the accused Suleman Mujahid Baloch MNA of MQM from NA 239 Karachi. Baloch used many delaying tactics, remained absent on three hearings in a row despite the case being in its final stage. But after getting warning from the court and the decision of Sindh Government to provide counsel to the accused on state expense, Baloch appeared and argued.
There are reports that the administration of District Jail Shikarpur is still providing illegal facilities to the accused-now-convicts of this high profile murder case due to their political backing.

A well-placed source in Sindh Jail Department revealed that the convicts, Faisal Mehmood alias Nafsiyati, Naveed alias Polka, Muhammad Ali Rizvi, Shakeel Malik and Shah Rukh alias Mani confined, had not only been enjoying the facilities reserved for A class prisoners but they had even visited the city in an official car of a jail officer twice during their confinement. The jail administration is said to be providing them good quality food and has appointed two prisoners to wait on them, it was learnt. These facilities are subject to court orders only and can be provided to highly literate persons, law graduates and members of parliament.

The journalist community protested on January 18 on the call of PFUJ in front of Shikarpur Jail against these acts.

Leaders, MNAs and MPAs of a particular party have been present and fully supporting every hearing of the case, extending full legal support to the murderer of Babar Wali.

The confidential joint interrogation reports (JITs) of six premier intelligence agencies of the country including ISI, IB, CID, Pakistan Rangers and police point towards the MQM workers’ involvement in the murder of Wali Babar and also confirmed that Faisal Mehmood alias Nafsiyati, Shah Rukh alias Mani and Muhammad Ali Rizvi were workers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

According to the JIT reports, the orders to kill Babar were issued by some ‘influential people’ living in South Africa but with connections in Karachi.

The JIT report further said that accused revealed to the investigators that their group leader, Faisal alias Mota, had received orders from a man named Agha to kill Babar. Faisal Mota held several meetings with them at different places to finalise the modus operandi of the operation.

MQM spokesman Wasay Jalil said the party has nothing to do with any of the convicted killers. “Every Urdu-speaking person is not an MQM worker. Such allegations are not new to the party as some people continue to spread fabricated stories against the party,” he said, adding these questions should arise only if the court convicts MQM.

Secretary General Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists PFUJ said, “The journalist community welcomes the court decision and our struggle for free media will continue.” He said the journalist community will also pursue the other cases of journalists’ murders in the line of duty.

There were two important turning points in the case which helped the prosecution to conclude the case — the confessional statement of one accused Shahrukh alias Mani before the judicial magistrate Karachi regarding the killing of Wali Babar and involvement of another accused. The other was the identification of convicts before the court by an eyewitness Haider Ali who was later killed in November, 2012.

Some questions related to the case are still unanswered. Will the judgement announced by the anti-terrorism court after three years of the murder reveal the masterminds, the actual culprits behind the murder? Will the main killers be arrested and punished?

In a country like Pakistan, especially in Sindh province where proclaimed offenders become ministers and members of parliament, anyone can imagine the situation. The main question is: Why was Wali Babar picked on? Some quarters say that he wanted to interview the ex-wife of a political leader and some suggest he was murdered due to his ethnic background.

These questions remain unanswered. The decision from the ATC in Wali Babar case is the first stage. The criminals behind this murder will challenge the decision in the high court and are capable of challenging the case in the apex court too.

The News

Karachi: Four men convicted of murdering Geo News reporter journalist Wali Khan Babar filed appeals on Thursday in the Sindh High Court against their life sentences.

Mohammad Shahrukh, 24, Faisal Mehmood, 45, Tahir Naveed Shah, 34, and Mohammad Ali Rizvi, 40, had been sentenced for life by an anti-terrorism court.

The appellants’ counsel alleged the prosecution had failed to prove its charges against the men and there was no direct evidence against them. The trial court erred in its judgment by relying on the prosecution case, which could not be substantiated in the eyes of the law, he claimed.

The high court was asked to set aside the convictions and to order the release of appellants if they were not involved in other cases.

On February 28, the Shikarpur anti-terrorism court had also handed down death sentences to two absconding men, Kamran alias Zeeshan and Faisal. Another man, 44-year-old Mohammad Shakeel, was however acquitted by the court.

Babar was shot dead on January 13, 2011, in Liaquatabad. The accused were arrested from Gulshan-e-Iqbal after a shootout. During interrogation, they confessed to their involvement in the murder.

Police charged the defendants along with their absconding associates, Kamran alias Zeeshan, Junaid, Saeed, Liaquat and Faisal, that they had killed the reporter due to some enmity.

The News

On Saturday March 1, 2014 a Pakistani court convicted six defendants for their roles in the murder of Wali Khan Babar, a Geo TV journalist who was shot dead in Karachi in January 2011, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the convictions – the first in the murder of a Pakistani journalist – but calls on authorities to ensure the masterminds are brought to justice.

“These convictions mark a significant step in addressing the deep-rooted culture of impunity surrounding the murders of journalists in Pakistan. They indicate what can be achieved when the country’s legal system commits itself to pursuing justice,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz. “But justice will remain incomplete until the masterminds in Wali Khan Babar’s case are also brought to trial.”

Judge Mushtaq Ahmed Leghari, who presided over a special Anti-Terrorism Court, sentenced Naveed Polka, Muhammad Ali Rizvi, Faisal Mahmood, and Mohammad Shahrukh Khan to life in prison, news reports said. Two others, Kamran (alias “Zeeshan”) and Faisal Mota, who have not yet been arrested, were given the death sentence in absentia. A seventh man, Mohammed Shakeel, was acquitted for lack of evidence, the reports said.

In an alleged video confession posted on YouTube, Khan said he had been told to follow Babar as he was driving home from work, according to a Reuters report. He said Zeeshan had stepped in front of the journalist’s car and shot him six to seven times. The video was authenticated to Reuters by the prosecutor, the report said.

CPJ issued a special report in May 2013, “Roots of Impunity,” that documented the lead-up to Babar’s murder and its aftermath. Babar had been threatened in connection with his coverage of political turf wars, extortion, targeted killings, electricity theft, and land-grabbing in the crime-ridden city of Karachi.

After Babar was slain, unidentified assailants murdered several individuals connected to the investigation, including a police informant, two police constables, and the brother of an investigating officer. In 2012, the one remaining witness in the case was also killed. He was due to testify in court two days later. The original prosecutors in the case–Muhammad Khan Buriro and Mobashir Mirza–told CPJ that they were threatened and eventually fired. They fled the country in late 2011. After these developments, the trial was shifted from Karachi to an anti-terrorism court in Shikarpur.

Based on early statements given by the suspects, police said the murder plot was organized by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or MQM, Pakistan’s third-largest political party and considered its most influential secular political organization. The MQM has repeatedly denied any involvement.

Prior to the convictions in the Babar murder, the high-profile killing of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan is the only known journalist murder case in the country in which partial justice was carried out. At least 46 journalists have been killed in Pakistan over the course of the last decade, according to CPJ research. The country is ranked eighth on CPJ’s 2013 Impunity Index, which calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population.

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