LAHORE/SLAMABAD: The Counter-Terrorism Department filed two terrorism charges in Lahore and Islamabad after letters purportedly tainted with a toxic chemical were delivered to the judges of the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court the day before.
CJP Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Justice Aminuddin received the letters from the highest court. The letters were received by the Supreme Court’s Receipt and Issue (R&I) Branch, after which they were sent to the judges’ staff. Similar to the letters that the IHC judges had received the day before, the envelopes containing the suspicious substance were also forwarded to the forensic lab. The Supreme Court judges were threatened in letters they received from an unidentified group for “rescuing evil.”
Two senders sent these letters to the judges, but their addresses were left out.
In response to a complaint made by Mohammad Iqbal, the duty in-charge of the R&I Branch, a case was also filed over the matter at the Counter Terrorism Department police station under Sections 507 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Among the recipients are CJP Isa and LHC CJ; CTD records two cases; all correspondence is forwarded for forensic review
The letters were received by an R&I Branch clerk on March 29/30 together with regular mail, as stated in the FIR. It further stated that the letters were sent via a naib qasid to the judges’ secretary. Two of the letters were sent by Gulshan Khatoon, while one was sent by Sajjad Hussain, according to the FIR. It further stated that the letters were sent without the senders’ full addresses. The letters from the R&I Branch were seized by the police upon their arrival at the highest court.
Dawn was informed by a police officer that although each mail contained a Rs. 30 postage stamp, the post office’s sealed stamp was hazy.
Each package contained a portion of the suspicious substance, which was removed and will be submitted for chemical and toxicological testing on Thursday (today) to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Islamabad.
DIG Operations Shehzad Bukhari came before the chief justice in the interim and provided the court with updates on the investigation. According to the police officer, forensic investigation has been conducted on both the letters and the alleged poisonous power. The DIG claims that the Pakistan Post was informed about the probe as well.
Letters at the LHC
A case was filed by the CTD in the meantime, and letters received by a minimum of five Lahore High Court justices were also forwarded to the forensics lab. Chief Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan, Justice Shujaat Ali Khan, senior puisne judge, Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, Justice Aalia Neelum, and Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh were the judges who received the letters.
DIG Operations Ali Nasir Rizvi, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana, and other law enforcement officers hurried to the high court following the police’s report of the incident. An anonymous official informed Dawn that the justices’ personal staff discovered the letters in the daily mail received at the high court. In response to letters written to the judges of the IHC, he said that the staff of every judge at the LHC was already on guard.
He claimed that the personnel gave the envelopes to police officers without opening them. According to the source, the police also detained a private courier company’s postman, who is claimed to have delivered the suspicious letters to the high court without disclosing the identity of the dispatchers.
CTD files a case
Late last night, the Punjab police’s Counter Terrorism Department in Lahore filed a formal complaint (FIR) against unidentified individuals for allegedly mailing threatening letters to the judges of the Lahore High Court, alleging violations of the anti-terrorism act and other offenses. The Punjab Forensic Science Agency received the letters for examination after the Lahore High Court received a complaint from the DSP Security, and the case was opened on that basis.
Senior officials from the CTD and other wings arrived there as soon as the LHC notified police high-ups, according to an official. He added that the white powder letters appeared to be anthrax, a microbe that gravely affects people, and that the police had taken the suspected letters into custody for examination.
Earlier in the day, DIG Rizvi verified the arrival of the dubious letters in the judges’ mail during a brief exchange with reporters.
He claimed that the Punjab Forensic Science Agency and the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had been contacted to look into the situation.
According to him, the police were checking every judge at the LHC’s mail to find out how many of them had received these kinds of letters. He declined to speak further, stating that following the preliminary inquiry, the authorities would issue an official statement. The existence of any hazardous material or threatening language in the letters was not verified by the DIG.
