ISLAMABAD: The head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted to probe the kidnapping and murder of Superintendent of Police (SP) Peshawar rural Tahir Khan Dawar was replaced with a senior officer.

The replacement was made to address the reservations of members of the JIT, sources in the capital administration and police told Dawn on Tuesday. They said Deputy Inspector General of Police (operations) Islamabad Faisal Ali Raja had been appointed as the new head of the JIT.

The JIT was constituted on Nov 15 on the request of the senior superintendent of police (SSP) operations Islamabad made to the capital administration.

Decision made after intelligence agencies expressed reservation over naming of junior police officer as the JIT head

Earlier, Superintendent of Police (investigation) Ghulfam Nasir was named as the convener of the JIT. Mr Nasir is a grade-18 officer who has now been replaced with Mr Raja, a grade-20 officer. However, Mr Nasir will remain a member of the JIT.

DSPs Shalimar and Crime Investigation Department, the investigation officer of the case along with the representatives of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) are members of the JIT.

The sources said the replacement was made after the intelligence agencies expressed their reservations over the seniority of the convener. They also did not send their representatives to attend the meeting of the JIT held on Monday.

“The agencies said they had not received any notification to nominate their representatives to join the JIT,” the sources said. So only the police officials attended the meeting.

Later, the capital administration appointed the senior police officer as the head of the JIT but the decision was taken without consulting the SSP operations who is the authority to make a request for the formation of a JIT and making any changes to it.

But a senior officer of the capital administration told Dawn that there was no need to consult the SSP operations on a minor issue.

When contacted, SSP operations Waqaruddin Syed said the change was made either over the issue of seniority or to follow the practice of appointing a DIG rank officer as the head of a JIT all over the country.

SP Dawar went missing under unexplained circumstances in Islamabad on Oct 26. A kidnapping case was registered with the Raman police on Oct 28.

On Nov 15, the missing police officer was found murdered in Afghanistan and a few days later his body was handed over to Pakistani authorities. Following the recovery of the body, section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) were added to the FIR.

Under the law, a JIT investigates cases registered under the ATA. After adding 7-ATA to the FIR, the police approached the capital administration with a request to constitute the JIT.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2018