Dr Shazia gang-rape case false: Owais
LAHORE: Dr Shazia gang-rape case was false, its facts were concocted, and it was used by certain elements in Balochistan to undo the ongoing political dialogues. The tribunal assigned the task to look into the incident has submitted its report, the contents of which are revealing.
These remarks were made by Governor Balochistan, Owais Ghani at the Governor’s House here on Friday in an informal chat with senior editors. His host, Governor Punjab, Khalid Maqbool was also present on the occasion. Governor Ghani said it was only after the tribunal submitted its report that he thought now was the time to talk about it.
He promised that soon copies of the tribunal’s report would be provided to all leading national newspapers so that the entire nation could know the actual position. “The said report has established three important facts. It says: firstly, it was by no means a gang rape. Only one person was involved in it. Secondly, the DNA tests of fresh and old condoms found from Dr Shazia’s house were identical and finally, after the incident the inner locks of three entry gates including the outer gate to her house were not broken, and instead was found intact,” he said.
Governor Balochistan said the report would state events as they unfolded and remove all wrong perceptions as were highlighted in the national press by the vested interests. “Now the question is how the culprit entered the house. Despite best efforts of the investigators, Dr Shazia could not offer any plausible explanation for it,” he added.
The Governor said 21 DNA tests were carried out that included Captain Hammad and none of them matched the DNA tests of the condoms. “We have now decided to carry out DNA tests of all men within the premises of the PPL compound. Initially, 300 persons would be required to go through the process to establish as to who was the real culprit. We may later expand this process to all men living and around the compound,” Owais Ghani said.
Replying to a question, the Governor said authorities had got hold of several persons as suspect and they were being interrogated. However, at this stage disclosing their names would not be in the fitness of things. “This would also be taken into consideration why Dr Shazia declined to register a case and failed to report the matter to police on her own. The government received negative publicity to keeping its cool on gang rape case because it wanted to catch hold of facts.
Owais Ghani went on to say that he did not wish to pass a judgment or give a personal view on the matter, he would leave it to the public at-large once the contents of the tribunal report were made available to them. For him, he said it was a painful incident.
He said the government wanted the solution of Balochistan problems through negotiations, but the recent terrorism had damaged the political efforts. The army has been called to safeguard the military and national installations, and no order to launch any operation has been issued, he said.
He said, “We have irrefutable evidence that arms are being smuggled into Balochistan from Afghanistan and the warlords are involved in this dirty business. Balochistan is shifting from the old tribal system to the modern political system and ‘we do not want to block this shift at any cast, he said,’ “I have met people. They want education and infrastructure so that they can also make progress like other provinces,” he said. He said consensus on 27out of 30 problems had been evolved and the remaining three would also be solved.
He said according the reports of European countries, last year about 5 thousand tonnes of opium worth $ 2 to 3 billion was smuggled to Europe from Afghanistan. The criminals having such a big amount purchase arms and smuggle them into the neighbouring countries for terrorism.
About the military garrisons he said he told Akbar Bugti that there were more than one dozen garrisons in his area, which had not snatched away their freedom.
He said that it was decide that Ch Shujaat and Tariq Aziz should contact the Baloch leaders and discuss local and national problems. They were to receive two lists of the problems from Akbar Bugti and Mengal, and a Parliamentary committee was formulated to resolve these issues. With the formation of the committee, the tension decreased, but the incidents of terrorism continued, which harmed the political efforts.. However, the government did not launch any operation in the greater national interest. But BNM declared the committee a meaningless body and boycotted the negotiations.
In fact, BNM wanted to derail the parleys process. Meanwhile, terrorism in Sui area occurred in which rockets in large number were used and the locals attacked the installations. It was such a big incident that the provincial government could remain inactive. It requested federal assistance to cope with the situation. The decision to call help was not ‘my individual decision. The entire provincial cabinet made this decision as the last resort.
He said the objective of calling the army was to secure the installations at Sui; to stop terrorism from spreading all over Balochistan and to provide security to the citizens. The Army was not ordered to launch any operation.
“When I was appointed Governor, President Musharraf told me that the constitutional set up should go on and the political system be provided maximum help for functioning,” he concluded.
Source: The News
Date:3/12/2005
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