Suspect in Pearl case booked for drug trafficking
THATTA- Fazal Karim, son of Allah Baksh, allegedly involved in the Daniel Pearl murder case, was remanded on April 16, 2003 in the police custody for two days by the district and sessions judge, Thatta, Rashid Ali Mirza, in a drug case.
The First Information Report (FIR) registered in the drug case stated the name of the accused to be Imran alias Fazal, son of Allah Baksh, instead of being Fazal Karim. He was shown to be Rehan by caste and a resident of the Pathan Colony, Hyderabad.
Earlier, Jhoke Sharif police station Station House Officer (SHO) Gul Muneer had produced the accused before the sessions court at about 5pm, claiming that the accused had been arrested a day ago, along with five kilogrammes of hashish, near the Shah Murad Sugar Mills.
At the time of the production of the accused before the sessions judge, DPO (operations) Nadir Khoso and DPO (investigation) Ali Nawaz Khaskheli were present on the occasion.
The accused had earlier been produced in the civil court in Mirpur Bathoro, where civil judge Faiz Mohammad Bhatti had refused to hand the accused in police remand, instead remanding the accused for five days in the judicial custody.
It had greatly perturbed the police and the accused was immediately rushed to the sessions court, Thatta, about 45 kilometres away from there where the accused was given in the police custody for two days.
Talking to journalists in the premises of the Thatta sessions court, accused Fazal Karim said that he was the same Fazal Karim, who had been detained by law enforcement agencies in Karachi as a suspect in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder case.
He also said that he had been picked up some time after other suspects in the case had been arrested, adding that they had already been convicted in the same case.
Mr Karim said that he belonged to Rahimyar Khan in Punjab, and was affiliated with a sectarian party.
Conceding that he had participated in the Afghan Jihad for about eight years, he said that he had met with the leader of the Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, twice.
Following the US invasion of Afghanistan, Mr Karim said, he had returned to Pakistan and was working as a labourer in Karachi at the time he was picked up by the CIA police along with other accused persons on May 14, 2002, in the Daniel Pearl case.
Recounting his story, he recalled that he had been shifted blindfolded to somewhere in Thatta district, saying that he had later come to know that he was detained in the Bannu police station, near Thatta, for nearly 11 months.
Through an application, the accused told the sessions court that he feared that the police would subject him to their notorious interrogation methods and extract a confessional statement from him.
He prayed that if the police produced such a statement before the court, it should consider the same as being produced under duress.
Earlier, his parents had, a few days ago, moved the sessions court, Thatta, through the Sindh High Court seeking his release from the wrongful confinement of the police after having come to know about his detention in the Bannu police station in Thatta district.
The sessions judge had assigned the judge of Mirpur Bathoro, Faiz Mohammad Bhatti, in this regard. The judge had raided the Bannu police station and found the accused in the police custody without having any record in this regard.
The judge had directed the SHO to release the man in question immediately but the detenu was not released.
Later, the judge had directed the SHO of the Bannu police station to produce the accused in the court. Subsequently, he was produced the next day in the sessions court on the charges of possessing five kilogrammes of hashish.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/18/2003
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