Terrorism Convictions

[sparklingway]

Agencies mishandled high profile terror attacks​

Thursday, July 08, 2010
By Umar Cheema

ISLAMABAD: Intelligence agencies not only mishandled the terrorism cases of Lt-Gen Mushtaq Baig and the Army bus attack near the NLC office in Rawalpindi, the six persons accused of attacking an ISI bus near Hamza Camp were also acquitted on the same grounds.

The police were kept away from the investigation and no evidence was shared with them. The FIR was registered in backdate, and none from the Army appeared as a witness, though four officials initially showed readiness but two backed out when approached by police for the purpose and the remaining two refused court appearance.

No inquiry was ordered to determine what caused the acquittal of the Hamza Camp attack accused though a meeting was held in the Regional Police Officer’s office in April to examine the reasons. Top officials of the Prosecution department, representatives of intelligence agencies and police bosses were in attendance, insiders of the meeting said.

According to the officials privy to the meeting, the intelligence sleuths accused the police and prosecution of badly handling the case that led to the acquittal of the accused. The police instead put the blame on intelligence agencies. Officials from the New Town Police Station in whose jurisdiction the incident occurred told the meeting that they were kept out of the loop. The accused subsequently secured acquittal from the Anti-Terrorism court for lack of evidence.

An explosives-laden van had hit a bus packed with security personnel at the gate of Hamza Camp (old Ojhri Camp) near Faizabad, killing 17 persons and injuring 35 others, on the morning of November 24, 2007. As the incident occurred and police reached the spot, even the then SSP (Operation) Yasin Farooq was not allowed to visit the crime scene that was hosed down within hours, the relevant officials told the meeting in the presence of intelligence sleuths. The wreckage of vehicle was removed and the police were told to leave the place.

A number of contacts with agency officials for registering complain were made, the police officials told the meeting. But the intelligence officials had an application registered with the police station about the incident, that too after four months of the incident. As a result, a Joint Interrogation Team was formed four months later but with no work as the suspects remained in the exclusive custody of intelligence personnel. The police were directed to leave blank an FIR to be filled later and it was done nine months after the incident when the six accused were handed over to the police. Narrating how the ‘arrest by police’ of the accused was flashed in the media, an official told the meeting that the police learnt through TV tickers about the arrest of some suspects who were initially locked up in the Civil Lines Police Station. The New Town Police Station was later ordered to take them in custody and register their arrest. The media was told explosives had been recovered from them. As the issue emerged how to link them with Hamza Camp attack, the agencies offered to present their four officials as witnesses, who would testify that they had seen them running from the scene.

As the police approached the would-be witnesses working in Hamza Camp, two of them flatly refused while the other two showed willingness. But one of them backed out when asked to accompany for identity parade and the other refused to appear in the court as a prosecution witness.

As nine months had already passed, the police now had the accused but neither the witnesses nor the agencies shared their findings, the meeting was told. The police even didn’t have the medico-legal reports of those killed and injured in the incident. These reports were also got prepared from backdate from the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), the police officials told the meeting.

According to the police, they sent many reminders to the agencies for handing over the evidence. Finally, a letter was sent issuing a warning that non-provision of evidence would spoil the case for which the police could not be blamed. Again, no evidence was shared. The end result was the acquittal of the accused.

According to the insider, Asghar Goraya, the then SHO New Police Station, spoke on this issue most of the time. When The News contacted him for his version, he declined to speak saying: “It was an internal debate. What I had to say was said in the meeting. It is not for public consumption.”

The ISPR offered no comment to a list of questions being reproduced below:

1) Is it true that SSP (Operation) was not allowed to visit the crime scene that was hosed down shortly after the incident?

2) Due to late registration of complaint with the police, the JIT was subsequently formed four months later but remained non-functional as no cooperation was extended by the agencies. Is it true?

3) Is it true that the accused in the custody of intelligence agencies were handed over to police after nine months, yet no findings were shared with the police nor any technical evidence provided?

4) Is it true that the complaint with the police was registered after four months after the latter’s repeated requests and thus a backdated FIR (earlier left blank for the purpose) was registered and sealed?

5) Is it true that the Army promised to provide four witnesses for the case? Two of them refused to become witnesses in the beginning and the other two backed out when taken to court for the purpose?

6) Is it true that medico-legal reports of the dead and injured in the Hamza Camp attack case were not provided to the police that had to have them prepared from backdate from CMH doctors?

7) Is it true that police wrote a letter, warning that inordinate delay in handing over the evidence and lack of cooperation could spoil the case but no remedial action was taken?

Agencies mishandled high profile terror attacks

 

[sparklingway]

A good anti-terrorism move​

Thursday, July 08, 2010
Ikram Sehgal

After the rout of the Taliban by US-led coalition forces, elements of Al-Qaeda found a safe haven in the no-go Fata territory (with the restrictions imposed by the government), and began to operate at will on both sides of the Durand Line. With plenty of cash from the foreigners, with religious sentiments against the occupation of Afghanistan and with the local heritage of spurning laws that are not essentially tribal in nature, Wana became an ideal recruiting ground from among the youth of the area. Poverty-stricken southern Punjab provided an additional source of recruits for the existing cells of disparate religious militants throughout the country.

When Pakistani forces entered Fata in 2004 without proper planning, adequate quantum of men and material, and without training for counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, Al-Qaeda—which till then had focused most of its violence on Afghanistan and places elsewhere in the world—had the infrastructure in place to target the Pakistani heartland with a vengeance. Notwithstanding the successful COIN operations by the Pakistani army (and the PAF) for the past year, the terrorists continue to have a remarkable capacity for mayhem and murder within Pakistan, and the capability to strike at a place and time of their own choosing.

Well-coordinated terrorist attacks targeting Lahore include “suicide bombings,” like the recent atrocity on the Data Ganj Baksh Darbar seems to have woken up our public representatives from their apathy towards a major problem. Rhetoric alone and chest-beating, and that too without conviction, is pointless, since it won’t save previous human lives. Even more pathetic is the use of the bogey of terrorism for political point-scoring, not only macabre and demeaning but condemnable. Why should anyone use the innocent people killed and injured for political gamesmanship? Whoever incites hatred and ethnic/sectarian violence must be indicted and prosecuted.

Terrorists have no faith and/or ethnicity. They cannot be branded as Punjabi, Pathan, Shia, Sunni, etc. Another hard fact has to be drummed into our ruling elite. To quote my article of Feb 18, 2010, “countering insurgency is far different from countering terrorism. We do not have the capacity or the capability within the civilian law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to counter terrorism.” Use of the army is counterproductive: alienating the population they will lose the goodwill gained through great sacrifice.

The excellent initiative of the government of establishing the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NCTA) lay mostly dormant till the recent Lahore incident. To its credit the government has now “activated” NCTA to cope with the danger. Dedicated and concentrated effort by a well equipped, well-trained and well-led force will be required to destroy the terrorists’ potential to spread harm and grief. This entity should be under the direct control of the NCTA. Using their available capabilities in personnel and training matched with technology, the US (Special Operations Command), the UK (SAS) France (CIGN), etc., have trained and equipped units specialising in handling immediate threats. A Counter-Terrorism Force (CTF) in Pakistan, officered both by the army and the police, must be developed on the pattern of the tremendously successful Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) that has almost eliminated poppy cultivation and drug smuggling. The ANF’s existing structure could be used as the nucleus for the CTF.

The US can help with funds, material and training. My article, “A Pakistan Surge,” of March 25, 2010, noted: “The US Department of Defence (DoD) has an office called SOLIC (Special Operation and Low Intensity Conflict) created in the 1980s. Within SOLIC there is an office called CN (Counter Narcotics), whose funding is authorised directly by Congress. After 9/11, Congress expanded DoD authority to use CN funds for counter-terrorism purposes, justified by the interplay between terrorist and insurgent groups and their fundraising from narcotics trafficking.”

Counterterrorism being the top priority of the nation and a full-time task, the NCTA (and the CTF) should be under a separate federal ministry working in close cooperation with both the ministries of defence and interior. Tariq Pervez, credited with turning the FIA around who has been re-employed as chairman of the NCTA, can possibly craft policy and make assessments if he is not inhibited by lack of cooperation and funds. Till now he was powerless to implement a coordinated strategy. While the proposed NCTA “think tank” is an excellent idea, various agencies presently conduct their own assessments and plan their operations without effectiveness. This uncoordinated “bits and pieces” effort affects security service delivery across a broad spectrum of likely targets: e.g., the diplomatic corps, multinational companies, expatriates and the public in general.

Notwithstanding the fact that law and order is a provincial subject, terrorism is a federal problem. The NCTA must identify the most dangerous threats and likely targets thereof. Among the required capabilities are to: (1) detect people organised in terrorist activity, while simultaneously monitoring their movements; (2) detect the sources of supply of explosive materials: the terrorists have to procure it from somewhere; (3) mobilise the defence capability to recognise and counter specific threats; (4) mobilise adequate and coordinated intelligence capability, utilising both human and electronic intelligence; (5) focus on air, sea, rail and road travel as potential terror targets; and (6) use both electronic and physical means to guard the country’s frontiers, involving monitoring and observation of thousands of miles of our borders.

The NCTA’s risk assessment process should analyse and define: (1) Related risks; (2) risk-related incidents; (3) risk impact; and (4) likelihood of incidents. Next, it should examine the current ability of the security authorities/stakeholders to include: (1) the organisational structures responsible to coordinate and deal with security and security-related incidents; (2) the emergency and other plans and procedures; (3) training standards; and (4) other security measures used by the authorities.

The future state of security alertness must be defined next. Most importantly, the detailed recommendation must include: (1) the specific stakeholder/security authority; (2) rating of current status/quality/ability; (3) recommendations must not be limited to organisational restructuring, manpower needs and training, electronic solutions and the need for specialised equipment; and (4) priorities must be spelt out. With many of our urban areas vulnerable, one city can be selected as a model for a realistic exercise. External sources and expertise must be tapped without further delay.

Those connected directly to the perpetrators and those who indirectly give sustenance must be targeted, including funds ostensibly meant for charity. Besides draining the country of its precious foreign exchange reserves, terrorist funding comes through foreign exchange dealers and “havalas.”. All foreign exchange must be processed through scheduled banks to stop the flow. The civilised world still has illusions that it is possible to enforce the rule of law in a totally lawless environment.

No country has a law against cannibals eating citizens because such an act would be unthinkable, but it is time to bring the unthinkable into the statute books. Does International law address killers shooting into hospitals, mosques and society? The punishment for so-called “suicide bombings” and/or abetting such an atrocity should be death. Those who incite ethnic and/or sectarian violence should also receive the death penalty. After years of vacillation our ulema belatedly seem united against this cancerous menace.

Public opinion is mobilised against the threat of terrorism. Rhetoric must now be translated into action.

The writer is a defence and political analyst. Email: isehgal@pathfinder9.com

 

[S_O_C_O_M]

How does the correctional system work in Pakistan? Say a terrorist is sentenced to 40 years in jail, does Pakistan have any sort of early release program similar to that of Parole here in the U.S. or do they serve out their entire time?

 

[sparklingway]

How does the correctional system work in Pakistan? Say a terrorist is sentenced to 40 years in jail, does Pakistan have any sort of early release program similar to that of Parole here in the U.S. or do they serve out their entire time?

There is a legal provision for parole available to convicts but it is not available in most cases to any serious offenders including rapists, murderers and especially not to convicted terrorists and anybody convicted by the ATCs. Their sentence is not remitted if there is any Presidential remission given to all convicts, they aren't eligible for "good conduct" remissions from either the IG Prisons nor can they receive similar remissions from their Jail Superintendent. You're in for good and will spend your term.

You won't get a 40 year sentence here anyways. It's the capital punishment or a maximum sentence of ten years.

 

[sparklingway]

Pakistani criminal justice system proves no match for terrorism cases​

By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times

October 27, 2010|4:52 p.m.

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan —
To find the office of the prosecutor in charge of putting Islamabad's bomb builders and terrorist masterminds behind bars, visitors must wend their way through the midday bustle of shoppers and descend into a dingy basement alcove, next to the Valley Tour travel agency.

There, Mohammed Tayyab will confess that he isn't at all proud of his track record. He has handled 45 cases in the last year. He has won just four.

"It's very low — I admit it," Tayyab says, heaving a sigh.

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Some of the cases he has lost were infamous terrorist attacks: The truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel that killed more than 50 people in the Pakistani capital in September 2008, and the June 2008 car bombing of the Danish Embassy that killed six people. The latter, Tayyab's most recent terrorism case, ended in the acquittal this fall of three men charged with helping plan the attack.

It's not that the prosecutor isn't aggressive enough or lacks legal acumen. But the cases Tayyab takes on seem doomed from the start. More often than not, they're based on shoddy police work, and only get to court because of antiquated judicial procedures that don't allow prosecutors to reject flimsy, poorly investigated cases.

"Our criminal justice system is weak," Tayyab says. "It's rubbish and needs a lot of improvement."

A country pummeled by a continual barrage of suicide bombings, assassinations and militant ambushes needs a well-oiled criminal justice system that keeps terrorists off the streets after they're nabbed and sends a signal that extremists cannot supplant law and order. Instead, the message Pakistanis get is that when it comes to terrorism cases, criminal justice in their country is hopelessly ineffective.

Legal experts say militants are walking free because police investigators lack basic evidence-gathering techniques to build solid cases. Investigators eager to get terrorism investigations off their desks are also prone to framing Pakistanis on trumped-up charges. More often than not, judges see through the frame-ups and acquit the defendants.

In Punjab, Pakistan's largest and wealthiest province, nearly three of every four terrorism cases in 2009 and the first six months of this year ended with acquittals, according to provincial court records. And while army offensives have dented militant activity in the restive Swat Valley and parts of the largely ungoverned tribal badlands along the Afghan border, experts say a reliable justice system buttressed by sound police work is essential to a broader containment of terrorism.

"If we don't get convictions, there will be no end to terrorism," says Sabah Mohyuddin Khan, a lawyer and former Islamabad judge. "Everyone should be worried about this. Unless killers are convicted, they'll have a free hand."

While acts of terrorism typically are complex crimes committed by highly trained, organized militant groups, the police assigned to investigate those crimes lack the sophisticated training to probe such cases.

"It's like fighting a war in the air with a Cessna," says former Interior Secretary Ilyas Mohsin. "[The police] do not have the facilities, the training or the equipment."

Any overhaul of Pakistan's criminal justice system, legal experts say, should start with a wholesale modernization of the country's outdated legal code so that prosecutors have more authority over terrorism investigations. Currently, when police submit a weak, flawed terrorism case for prosecution, criminal law in Pakistan does not give prosecutors the discretionary power to reject it.

The Danish Embassy bombing case is an ideal example. Tayyab's star witnesses were two Islamabad police constables who said they had seen two men in a car signal the car bomber to pull up to the embassy wall. Moments later, the car bomb exploded, blowing a gaping hole in the embassy wall. The men in the car sped off.

No arrests were made until a year later, when three men were charged in Islamabad's next-door city, Rawalpindi, with murder. The Islamabad constables said when they saw two of those men in a lineup, they identified them as the men who had signaled the embassy bomber.

Even Tayyab acknowledged having doubts about the constables' claim of remembering the faces of two men they had seen only momentarily a year before. The judge was just as skeptical.

"It was in my mind that it's unsafe to rely on this," Tayyab says. "And the judge agreed. He said, 'It's unnatural. They had no ample opportunity to note the features of these people. How can you say this is possible?' "

Tayyab had a stronger case against two men charged with helping plan and oversee the truck bomb attack on the Marriott, a swanky five-star hotel that is a hub for diplomats and Western businesspeople. The key witnesses were two friends of the men charged. They told investigators they had been with the defendants before the attack and heard the men discussing how they would carry out the bombing.

During the investigation, the witnesses gave recorded statements to a magistrate, which under Pakistani law made the statements admissible in court. But when the case came to trial, the witnesses recanted. In terrorism cases in Pakistan, witnesses often recant once in the courtroom, fearing the defendants' militant colleagues will track them down.

"They said the police had made them become witnesses, that the statements they made before the magistrate [were the] result of being threatened," Tayyab says. Though the defendants presented no evidence of duress, the judge accepted their recantations.

In many cases, key witnesses in terrorism cases do not even show up in court, fearing retribution from militant groups. Cases involving sectarian killings in southern Punjab province have stalled for years because witnesses refused to testify or were killed beforehand. Pakistan lacks any kind of protection program to safeguard witnesses in terrorism cases. "We are not that organized," Mohsin says.

The country's top judges have taken notice of the rising tide of acquittals in terrorism cases. Spurred by the June 19 acquittal of a man charged in the March 2009 siege on a Lahore police academy, the city's high court chief justice, Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, said, "It is an alarming state of affairs that a number of accused have been acquitted by trial courts due to defective investigation and lack of sufficient evidence and, as such, failure of the prosecution to prove cases."

In the Lahore attack, militants armed with automatic rifles, grenades and suicide vests overran the academy and held it for eight hours, killing at least eight recruits and instructors and wounding more than 100 others. The lone man arrested, Hijrat Ullah, was caught at the academy grounds in the midst of the attack, wielding a hand grenade and trying to blow up a helicopter.

Ullah was convicted of possession of a hand grenade and sentenced to 10 years in prison. But citing insufficient evidence, a judge acquitted him in a separate trial on terrorism charges stemming from the attack. Ullah could have received life imprisonment.

Pakistani officials say they do not have the financial resources to train police or buy the forensic equipment needed to adequately investigate and prosecute terrorism cases. But some of those on the judicial front lines counter that the country cannot afford to avoid tackling the problem any longer. Militants continue to strike virtually every week, and the list of terrorism defendants continues to grow.

"To improve," Tayyab says, "it will take time. The problem is that we have no time."

Pakistan criminal justice system proves no match for terrorism - latimes.com

 

[seekers]

This is real job of CJ. to improve judicial system to punish terrorist , but he is intentionally ignoring that and keep pursuing the solely zardari corruption cases .He is now fame addicted and now just playing with poor nation.
Sugar price control is just one example which nation has forget.

 

[sparklingway]

Nine TTP affiliates get 10 years in prison

RAWALPINDI: A civil court in Rawalpindi on Tuesday sentenced nine affiliates of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to ten years in prison.

The nine were arrested from Rawalpindi in January 2009, and a huge cache of weapons and explosives was also seized from them.

The culprits were also involved in the killing of Surgeon General Pakistan, Lt General Mushtaq Baig.

Lt General Baig, along with seven other people, died when a suicide bomber struck his car on the Mall Road, near military headquarters in Rawalpindi on February 25, 2008.

The court also ordered authorities to confiscate moveable and immoveable property of the accused, who were also charged with giving refuge to suicide bombers.

Nine TTP affiliates get 10 years in prison – The Express Tribune

 

[sparklingway]

Haven't updated this in a long while. But there is good news. 122 PPC might be easier to try than convicting for terrorism where loose affiliations with groups are hard to prove.Plus with Explosives Act, 1884 and illegal possession of weapons, can send these chaps to 20 years of prison easily.

Enemies of the state?: In a first, terror suspects charged under anti-state laws
By Faraz Khan
Published: August 16, 2011

KARACHI:*The authorities have charged two alleged terrorists Abdul Razzak also known as Omer and his accomplice Rashid Iqbal alias Basit under section 122 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). They claim that this is the first time terrorists have been charged under the anti-state section.
Section 122 of the PPC states that whoever collects arms with the intention of waging a war against Pakistan will be punished with imprisonment for life or a term not exceeding ten years and should also be liable to a fine. Since the formation of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan by Baitullah Mehsud in 2007, more than a hundred Taliban members have been arrested from the city but none of them have been charged because the authorities were unable to gather solid evidence against them.

The alleged terrorists are in their early thirties and had links with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Punjab chapter. They were arrested by the Crime Investigation Department’s (CID) Anti-Extremism Cell on June 12 in a raid on Frontier Colony.

The authorities claim to have seized a massive supply of arms and ammunition, including 20 kilogrammes of explosives and hand grenades. The men were accused of sending young people to Waziristan for training and preparing them for suicide bombings and sectarian killings.

The authorities claim that in 2010 they were about to file a similar case under section 122 of the penal code, regarding a young man who had been brainwashed. “In 2010 the terrorists had brainwashed a young man and had wanted to take him with them but were unable to,” said SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan.

In 2009 the men had prepared six young men for the sole purpose of blowing themselves up. “They took the boys to Waziristan where four of them were killed in a drone attack and two, Waqar Ahmed and Arshad Khan, were injured and taken into police custody.” The SSP added that previously the authorities had imposed sections related to seizing weapons or murders. “The drone attack survivors were presented before a judicial magistrate under section 164 of the penal code and confessed to what had happened to them,” he said. “The terrorists also confessed before a judicial magistrate.” The SSP added that Omer and Basit’s charge sheet was submitted to an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) and an FIR (No 285/11) under section 121-C of ATC 1908 and section 122 of the penal code. “It is nothing short of a miracle to think that now we can charge the terrorists against anti-state elements with evidence,” said the SSP.

Legally speaking

A criminal law professor, Iqbal Shah Advocate, told The Express Tribune that according to the law, intentions had no significance. He added that in this case, the authorities should prove that the terrorists took the young men to Waziristan and trained them as suicide bombers.

“In most cases the terrorists confess in front of the authorities but refuse to do so in court and so it is necessary to record their statement under section 164 of the penal code in front of a magistrate,” said the advocate.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16th, 2011.

Enemies of the state?: In a first, terror suspects charged under anti-state laws – The Express Tribune

 

[sparklingway]

On the other hand, this happens when judicial system fails and the law is taken into own hands. Made "missing" earlier and now disposed off.

Missing Adiyala Jail inmate found dead

PESHAWAR*-* The dead body of Amir Khan, a man who went missing from Adiyala Jail in 2010, was found in Peshawar on Monday. Media reports said Khan was arrested two years ago on charges of terrorism, but was acquitted by the court on May 28, 2010 because of lack of evidence. Ten other accused were also released by the court that day, however, they were taken away by unidentified men from outside the jail immediately after their release.

The Inter-Services Intelligence had later confirmed that Amir and the others were in its custody. His body was brought to Lady Reading Hospital where it was handed over to his relatives after identification. Whereabouts of the other missing inmates are yet to be ascertained.

Missing Adiyala Jail inmate found dead in Peshawar | Pakistan Today | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia