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Student?s death at AKU Karachi sparks controversy
Student?s death at AKU Karachi sparks controversy
* Police challenges medical board?s findings
By Maqbool Ahmed, Intikhab Ali and Aziz Sanghur in Karachi and Khalid Hasan in Washington
KARACHI/WASHINGTON: The police officer investigating the alleged murder of Asad Aftab, a student of the Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, has challenged the findings of the medical board formed on the request of the family of one of the accused and has requested the government to form a new board to ascertain the true cause of the student?s death. Asad Aftab was found dead on September 16, 2004, in the dormitory of another student named Zeeshan.
Three students, Muhammad Zeeshan (son of an army colonel), Kashif and Qazi Asad, had been nominated in the FIR 261/2004 for the murder of Asad Aftab. In the interim charge sheet of the controversy-ridden case presented before a sessions judge on April 26, the investigating officer (IO) said a Sindh government medical board formed on the insistence of the family of one of the accused had further complicated the case. The medical board in its report had made recommendations, inter alia, for sending samples taken from the deceased?s body to a laboratory in London, saying the autopsy report by the Sindh chemical examiner and the AKU report, which the AKU got from another London lab by sending samples taken from the deceased?s body to the UK, were conflicting.
The IO, Inspector Ashfaq, has also doubted the autopsy report. He said in the charge sheet that the two copies of the autopsy report gave two different reasons for Asad?s death. In one copy the cause of death had been cited as ?asphyxia due to suffocation? while in the second copy the cause of death was cited as ?overdose of Benzodiazepine?.
The IO stated in the interim charge sheet that the addition in the autopsy report was an attempt to show that the cause of death was the result of an overdose of a certain medicine, creating doubt about the memo of the incident, which showed that groove type marks were found on both wrists of the deceased and his pillow had blood stains.
Initially, a sub-Inspector named Shariq Siddiqui was entrusted with the investigation of the case, but he was suspended amid bribery charges and the investigation was transferred to the present IO.
The prime accused, Mohammad Zeeshan, in FIR 296/2004, accused Shariq Siddiqi and another man Altaf Khan of receiving Rs 1.6 million for getting them cleared from the murder charges.
The murder came in the limelight when a group of US-based Pakistani doctors charged that the AKU was trying to obstruct the course of justice and had staged a ?cover up? to conceal the ?murder?.
The Pakistan-American doctors held a news conference last week at which they made the allegation.
According to the story as narrated by Dr Mohammad Khalid Abdullah and his colleagues in Washington DC, Asad Aftab, a third year AKU student was found dead in the dormitory of his fellow student Zeeshan on 16 September 2004. Staff at the AKU emergency are alleged to have said that Asad died of a drug overdose and possibly suicide. Dr Abdullah claimed that the AKU staff advised Asad?s family to bury the body without informing the police. But the family called the police and an autopsy was performed the same night at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre.
The autopsy report said the cause of death was ?asphyxia due to suffocation? plus an ?overdose of Benzodiazepine?. There were also ?groove type? marks on both wrists. A police case was subsequently registered. Asad was apparently seen the night before his body was discovered with three students, Zeeshan, Kashif and Qazi Asad. When the family saw the autopsy report a few weeks later, it filed a petition urging that the names of the three students be added to the First Information Report (FIR) on charges of murder.
According to a story in the Pakistani-run, Washington-based South Asia Tribune, thereafter a series of ?bizarre incidents? took place. The mobile phone of the deceased, which was missing, was recovered from a person who had purchased it for Rs 8,000 from one of the three students who was said to have been with Asad the night before his death. Then Shariq Siddiqui, the police officer who was investigating the case, was caught with Rs 0.1 million, an amount allegedly given to him by Zeeshan?s father. AKU on its own sent samples taken from the deceased?s body to a laboratory in London, which found the presence of opiates, something disputed by the family. The family of the suspect students called for the formation of a Sindh government medical board to determine the facts. A board was thereafter formed that recommended sending samples to a different laboratory in London because the findings of two earlier reports conflicted with each other. It also said that AKU had not fulfilled its legal responsibilities in the case.
South Asia Tribune says it was told by an AKU spokesman that several students had been expelled from AKU for misconduct, but he could not answer the questions raised by the newspaper because the case was now in the court and subjudice.
The South Asia Tribune said that by expelling several students on drug-related charges, the institution had implicitly admitted a serious drug problem existed on campus. The expelled students include the three suspects involved in Asad?s death. The three were not arrested, as they had obtained bails before arrest, but AKU also did not take any action against them for eight months.
AKU denies cover-up
KARACHI: The AKU?s position is that immediately after the incident on September 16, 2004, the university initiated an internal inquiry and completed it on November 29, 2004, which identified a ?few students possessing and using contraband drugs on campus?. Meanwhile, the family of the deceased remained unconvinced of the findings of two consecutive police investigative reports. Therefore a third investigation team constituted by the chief minister/police chief is currently investigating the same case vigorously on campus. The AKU said it had cooperated with all investigations. In January 2005, it eventually constituted a disciplinary committee that expelled nine students, including the three alleged murderers, from campus. A spokesman of the AKU told Daily Times that there was no cover up by the AKU. The university, he said, did not bring up the matter publicly earlier for ?compassionate reasons and out of deference for the student and his parents?.
Court to decide bail on 14th
KARACHI: Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADJ) Kausar Sultana on Saturday fixed May 14 for court orders on confirmation of bail to Mohammad Zeeshan, Qazi Asad and Kashif Anwer, all of whom are charged with killing a student of Aga Khan University. The suspects were earlier granted interim pre-arrest bail by the Sindh High Court. The trial court on Saturday heard the arguments by their counsel Iqtidar Ali Hashmi and the district attorney and reserved its order for May 14. Asad Aftab, a third-year medial student at AKU, was found dead in Zeeshan?s room on September 16, 2004. The police had already submitted an interim charge sheet.
* Police challenges medical board?s findings
By Maqbool Ahmed, Intikhab Ali and Aziz Sanghur in Karachi and Khalid Hasan in Washington
KARACHI/WASHINGTON: The police officer investigating the alleged murder of Asad Aftab, a student of the Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, has challenged the findings of the medical board formed on the request of the family of one of the accused and has requested the government to form a new board to ascertain the true cause of the student?s death. Asad Aftab was found dead on September 16, 2004, in the dormitory of another student named Zeeshan.
Three students, Muhammad Zeeshan (son of an army colonel), Kashif and Qazi Asad, had been nominated in the FIR 261/2004 for the murder of Asad Aftab. In the interim charge sheet of the controversy-ridden case presented before a sessions judge on April 26, the investigating officer (IO) said a Sindh government medical board formed on the insistence of the family of one of the accused had further complicated the case. The medical board in its report had made recommendations, inter alia, for sending samples taken from the deceased?s body to a laboratory in London, saying the autopsy report by the Sindh chemical examiner and the AKU report, which the AKU got from another London lab by sending samples taken from the deceased?s body to the UK, were conflicting.
The IO, Inspector Ashfaq, has also doubted the autopsy report. He said in the charge sheet that the two copies of the autopsy report gave two different reasons for Asad?s death. In one copy the cause of death had been cited as ?asphyxia due to suffocation? while in the second copy the cause of death was cited as ?overdose of Benzodiazepine?.
The IO stated in the interim charge sheet that the addition in the autopsy report was an attempt to show that the cause of death was the result of an overdose of a certain medicine, creating doubt about the memo of the incident, which showed that groove type marks were found on both wrists of the deceased and his pillow had blood stains.
Initially, a sub-Inspector named Shariq Siddiqui was entrusted with the investigation of the case, but he was suspended amid bribery charges and the investigation was transferred to the present IO.
The prime accused, Mohammad Zeeshan, in FIR 296/2004, accused Shariq Siddiqi and another man Altaf Khan of receiving Rs 1.6 million for getting them cleared from the murder charges.
The murder came in the limelight when a group of US-based Pakistani doctors charged that the AKU was trying to obstruct the course of justice and had staged a ?cover up? to conceal the ?murder?.
The Pakistan-American doctors held a news conference last week at which they made the allegation.
According to the story as narrated by Dr Mohammad Khalid Abdullah and his colleagues in Washington DC, Asad Aftab, a third year AKU student was found dead in the dormitory of his fellow student Zeeshan on 16 September 2004. Staff at the AKU emergency are alleged to have said that Asad died of a drug overdose and possibly suicide. Dr Abdullah claimed that the AKU staff advised Asad?s family to bury the body without informing the police. But the family called the police and an autopsy was performed the same night at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre.
The autopsy report said the cause of death was ?asphyxia due to suffocation? plus an ?overdose of Benzodiazepine?. There were also ?groove type? marks on both wrists. A police case was subsequently registered. Asad was apparently seen the night before his body was discovered with three students, Zeeshan, Kashif and Qazi Asad. When the family saw the autopsy report a few weeks later, it filed a petition urging that the names of the three students be added to the First Information Report (FIR) on charges of murder.
According to a story in the Pakistani-run, Washington-based South Asia Tribune, thereafter a series of ?bizarre incidents? took place. The mobile phone of the deceased, which was missing, was recovered from a person who had purchased it for Rs 8,000 from one of the three students who was said to have been with Asad the night before his death. Then Shariq Siddiqui, the police officer who was investigating the case, was caught with Rs 0.1 million, an amount allegedly given to him by Zeeshan?s father. AKU on its own sent samples taken from the deceased?s body to a laboratory in London, which found the presence of opiates, something disputed by the family. The family of the suspect students called for the formation of a Sindh government medical board to determine the facts. A board was thereafter formed that recommended sending samples to a different laboratory in London because the findings of two earlier reports conflicted with each other. It also said that AKU had not fulfilled its legal responsibilities in the case.
South Asia Tribune says it was told by an AKU spokesman that several students had been expelled from AKU for misconduct, but he could not answer the questions raised by the newspaper because the case was now in the court and subjudice.
The South Asia Tribune said that by expelling several students on drug-related charges, the institution had implicitly admitted a serious drug problem existed on campus. The expelled students include the three suspects involved in Asad?s death. The three were not arrested, as they had obtained bails before arrest, but AKU also did not take any action against them for eight months.
AKU denies cover-up
KARACHI: The AKU?s position is that immediately after the incident on September 16, 2004, the university initiated an internal inquiry and completed it on November 29, 2004, which identified a ?few students possessing and using contraband drugs on campus?. Meanwhile, the family of the deceased remained unconvinced of the findings of two consecutive police investigative reports. Therefore a third investigation team constituted by the chief minister/police chief is currently investigating the same case vigorously on campus. The AKU said it had cooperated with all investigations. In January 2005, it eventually constituted a disciplinary committee that expelled nine students, including the three alleged murderers, from campus. A spokesman of the AKU told Daily Times that there was no cover up by the AKU. The university, he said, did not bring up the matter publicly earlier for ?compassionate reasons and out of deference for the student and his parents?.
Court to decide bail on 14th
KARACHI: Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADJ) Kausar Sultana on Saturday fixed May 14 for court orders on confirmation of bail to Mohammad Zeeshan, Qazi Asad and Kashif Anwer, all of whom are charged with killing a student of Aga Khan University. The suspects were earlier granted interim pre-arrest bail by the Sindh High Court. The trial court on Saturday heard the arguments by their counsel Iqtidar Ali Hashmi and the district attorney and reserved its order for May 14. Asad Aftab, a third-year medial student at AKU, was found dead in Zeeshan?s room on September 16, 2004. The police had already submitted an interim charge sheet.