October 21, 2024
By Shaukat Korai
KARACHI
Karachi’s lawyers and civil society activists on Sunday, October 20, held separate protests against the murder of three students, Sajan Malokani, Sarmad Bhayo and Vaneesh Kumar, who were initially declared missing.
As per official claims, Sajan and his friend Sarmad were killed in an encounter with the Punjab Police in Rahim Yar Khan on October 6. Meanwhile, Vaneesh’s body was discovered in a storm drain near Hyderabad city just last week.
In a video statement uploaded to social media, Sajan’s sister Tasleem claimed that the court issued directives to the relevant authorities to produce her brother within a month, but before the date, he was killed in a ‘staged encounter’.
“Sajan was declared a dacoit just so that he could be killed,” she said. “They have created this elaborate drama in order to clear their names. We know who those na maloom afraad [unidentified individuals] and terrorists really are. If Sajan was a mere dacoit, then our poor army did not need to waste so many bullets on him, nor would they have spent the last 14 months banging their heads against a wall. Because if he was a dacoit, then the police would have been enough.”
Tasleem also announced that Sajan’s family were proud of his sacrifice for Sindh’s freedom.
“Our struggles are for Sindh,” she said.
GONE MISSING
Sajan, a law student enrolled in the Sindh University Hyderabad, was reportedly abducted along with his cousins Shaukat and Naeem on September 1, 2023. Their whereabouts remained unknown until a press conference by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on July 30, 2024, where Senior Superintendent Police of CTD Hyderabad, Syed Amir Abbas Shah, announced they had successfully averted ‘a possible terrorist attack’ planned for August 14.
In the same briefing, he also claimed that Sajan and his cousins had ambushed a CTD team in Jamshoro’s Kotri SITE but were repelled. Shaukat and Naeem Malokani were arrested while Sajan managed to flee. SSP Amir also stated that all three youths had links to the radical Sindhudesh Liberation Army (SRA), and that Sajan had been involved in previous terror incidents in May and August of 2023.
TERRORIST CLAIMS REJECTED
The youth’s family as well as human rights activists across Sindh rejected the CTD’s allegations, asserting that he was a victim of an enforced disappearance and that he was being falsely implicated. They also expressed concerns that Sajan may have been harmed, and demanded his immediate production before a court of law.
His family filed a petition for his recovery a year after his alleged abduction, and on September 8, 2024, the court directed the police to produce him before a magistrate within one month. Ten days later, the police submitted a report on Sajan’s alleged links with SRA and his involvement in a number of terrorist attacks.
On October 6, the Punjab Police announced that Sajan and Sarmad had been eliminated during a targeted operation in Kacha Machka, terming it a “major success in [a] kacha area”
In light of the killings, members of the legal fraternity as well as civil society activists staged demonstrations against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Sindh.
“The three youths were abducted by state institutions and were missing for the past one year. Their petitions are pending before the Hyderabad bench of the Sindh High Court, but instead of trying them before a court of law, they were murdered,” said Aaquib Rajper, a Sindh high court lawyer and participant of the protest. He added that the incidents themselves are evidence of genocide of the Sindh nation.
“Rahim Yar Khan Police announced that [Sajan] was killed in a police encounter. This means that they are admitting he was in their custody for the past 11 months and are now puffing their chest and declare they have murdered him,” said Khalil Ansari, another protesting lawyer. “There is no rule of law nor any faith in law in a country where people can be disappeared and later killed extrajudicially. Sindh is a peaceful province, but this lawlessness will push people to take up arms and this will lead to a situation like in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where billions will be spent on trying to crush armed dissent in the name of establishing peace,” he added.
CIVIL SOCIETY PROTESTS
Separately, civil society actors, including women’s rights activists, trans rights activists and trade union leaders, held their demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club.
“There is no justice in abducting youths from their homes and later surrendering their corpses to their mothers,” lamented Shahzadi Rai, a representative of the transgender community. “The issue of missing persons cannot be suppressed anymore. Irrespective of a missing person’s ethnicity, religion or gender, we will raise our collective voice for them.”
“The courts need to be empowered. There is no rule of law in our land. Our law enforcing institutions are dysfunctional, and our law keepers are themselves committing crimes,” said feminist activist Najma Maheshwari. “Our law enforcing institutions should explain to us what is the point of these laws under these circumstances.”
“Even during martial law, things were not this bad,” Nasir Mansoor, General Secretary of the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) said. “Citizens are being picked up all the while we claim we have a so-called democratic government, an independent judiciary and a free media. Enforced disappearances are themselves acts of terrorism.”
Protestors demanded that a judicial inquiry be conducted into the incident and those responsible be identified.