Five years on, murderers of Geo News staffer remain at large | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Five years on, murderers of Geo News staffer remain at large

Pakistan Press Foundation

Five years ago, on September 8, 2015, a digital satellite news gathering (DSNG) van belonging to Pakistan’s largest television network Geo News, was attacked by unknown gunmen in the metropolitan city of Karachi.

In the attack, a satellite engineer, Arshad Ali Jaffery, was killed. His colleague, the driver of the van, Anis Chauhan, suffered injuries but managed to survive the attack.

No one had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Five years later, however, there is little progress in arresting those behind the attacks on the Geo News van and the case remains under investigation.

On the night of attack in 2015, Chauhan managed to drive them to the Aga Khan University Hospital, where he found out that Jaffery had succumbed to his injuries.

It was at the hospital that Chauhan recorded his statement before Sub Inspector Zafar Hayat and became the complainant of the police report, First Information Report (FIR) that was registered.

In his statement, the DSNG van driver said that along with two other colleagues, Jaffery and himself, were travelling in the official vehicle. The van was parked in front of a superstore where the two colleagues went to shop while Jaffery and Chauhan were in the van. In the meantime, he said that at around 9:31pm, someone started firing on the vehicle. Chauhan lowered himself into the driving seat and received two bullet wounds.

According toPakistan Press Foundation (PPF), Jaffery had received seven bullets – to his chest, neck and upper body which proved fatal.

The then Deputy Inspector General for the region, Munir Ahmed Shaikh, had said police had found nine bullet shells for a 9mm pistol at the crime scene and were checking CCTV footage.

Chauhan lodged the criminal complaint against unknown persons for murdering his colleague and for wounding him and pleaded for proceedings against the assailants.

The FIR was registered against unknown persons at the Ferozabad Police Station under Section 302 (murder), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act.

Half a decade later there is not much progress into the incident and the culprits remain at large.

On August 22, 2020, while speaking to PPF, Chauhan said that the last time he went for a hearing regarding the incident was in 2018.

He recalled that the police officer had questioned what he wanted to do further (in the case), as none of the accused were arrested at the time. This was the last time Chauhan went for a hearing.

Both the current Investigation Officer Iftikhar and the Station House Officer (SHO) Ferozabad Police Station Aurangzeb told PPF that the case is still under investigation.

The case is categorized as ‘A-Class’which pertains to cases in which accused are unknown or untraceable.

Geo TV Bureau Chief Faheem Siddiqui confirmed that until now the case remains under investigation.


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