A suspected terrorist, Abdullah Umar, alleggedly affiliated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) sought by the anti-terrorism courts (ATC) in the assassinations of minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti and a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) special prosecutor may possibly be in the custody of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
The suspect had been in judicial custody since May 2014 but an Islamabad ATC granted him pre-arrest bail in June 2014 in the murder trial of FIA special prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali.
On June 24, 2015, when the case was presented before the court to frame charges against the suspects – Mr Umar, Adnan Adil and Hammad Adil – Mr Umar’s father told the court he had been missing since June 20.
Mr Umar’s wife, Zainab Khan, had filed a petition in the same year with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking the recovery of her husband. Suspect is held for his alleged affiliation with TTP, involved in assassinations of Shahbaz Bhatti, FIA official.
It was revealed by the Margalla during the hearing of Ms Khan’s petition, that Mr Umar “might have been detained somewhere by the ISI or any other intelligence agency.”
IHC Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi subsequently issued notices to the ISI and the defence secretary seeking their replies.
The police had arrested Mr Umar from the Quaid-i-Azam International Hospital in Islamabad following the May 3, 2013, attack on Ali, who was on his way to a Rawalpindi ATC to submit a charge sheet against former president Gen Pervez Musharraf in the Benazir Bhutto murder case. The case began on June 25, 2013, after Mr Umar’s arrest. The other suspects in the murder were arrested by the police on Aug 31, 2013.
FIR, No.223 dated May 3, 2013, accuses Mr Umar of killing Ali. In addition to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto – in which five TTP members, two high ranking police officials and Mr Musharraf were suspects, Ali was also allegedly dealing with the Mumbai attacks case, the Haj corruption case and other high profile cases.
The report said Mr Umar was wanted in FIR No.94, dated March 2, 2012, for assassinating Bhatti, an advocate for the reform of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Two assassins fired at the minister’s car, shooting him eight times, before scattering pamphlets calling him a “Christian infidel” that were signed by the “Taliban al-Qaeda Punjab”.
Mr Umar was arrested almost a month after the prosecutor’s murder. He was paralysed below the waist at the time of his arrest, after a bullet fired by the prosecutor’s guard hit his spinal column.
The suspect’s father, retired Lt Col Khalid Mehmood Abbasi, lodged an FIR with the Ratta Amral police in Rawalpindi saying his son was shot by robbers.
A joint investigation team which was set to locate Mr Umar claimed he was involved in terrorism in events of Shahbaz Bhatti and Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali’s assassinations. Its report, submitted before the court by Senior Superintendent of Police Sajid Kiani stated: “Abdullah Umar was active member of proscribed TTP and is involved in the above mentioned high profile cases and has been declared proclaimed as absconder by the ATC and it is apprehension that the accused has [hidden] himself at some unknown place to avoid appearance before the trial court… JIT is in constant contact with the political agents of Tribal Areas to trace [his] whereabouts.”