Clueless investigation into the brutal murder of my elder brother and a senior journalist

Clueless investigation into the brutal murder of my elder brother and a senior journalist
By: ABDUL WAHEED KHAN
Published: Nov 29, 2007

One-year ago my elder brother an Islamabad based veteran journalist Mohammad Ismail Malik, was brutally murdered under mysterious circumstances and after a whole year the Federal Capital's Police are still clueless and there is no headway in the whole investigation. My fifty three year old elder brother Mohammad Ismail was in journalism for the last thirty years and he was working as a Resident Editor/Bureau Chief of an independent national news agency Pakistan Press International (PPI) Islamabad, at the time of his brutal murder by unidentified people on 31 st October/01st November 2006's midnight.

He had no enmity or personal conflict with any one. During his career he worked with prominent media organisations including Daily "The Muslim", daily "The Frontier Post", Daily "The Mashriq" News agencies like "Online" and "PPI". He started his career in journalism as a Reporter from Attock in 1976, and worked his way up to Peshawar and Islamabad as a Senior Staff Reporter, Chief Reporter, Columnists, Editor Reporting, Bureau Chief and Resident Editor till his sudden death, which has devastated our whole family. He was an honest, upright, fearless, responsible and a conscientious journalist and was widely admired and respected in the community of journalists for his qualities of character and professionalism. He was a very much loved and respected, son, brother, uncle, husband, father and grandfather. He will be dearly missed and our whole family will not be able to come to terms with how he died until his killers are found and punished.

According to the Police his body was found from the green belt area of F-6/1 (which is some thirty/forty feet away from Shaheed-e-Millets Road not so far away from his office "PPI") near a busy Super Market, as an unknown person, in the morning between 8am to 9am on Wednesday 01 st November 2006 and was moved straight away to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for autopsy, without collecting any available evidences and any detailed forensic search of the scene. Whilst his identity cards and other possessions were in his waistcoat, which was found from the spot later on by the same police after a couple of hours and then the police told "PPI" staff and our family members after 2pm in the day. The murderers took only his Nokia 3330e mobile phone IMEI number 350847803403450, which is still missing and many phone calls made and received by him are not listed in the incoming and outgoing details of his Mobilink mobile phone number 0300-5267026.

Doctor Wasim A Khawaja of (PIMS) who did the autopsy stated that "it was a target killing and there were very clear marks on both of his wrists". There were also clear finger print marks on his face near his mouth, showing that he had been gagged, and there was a round little mark (bruise) on the left side of his chest above the heart. The Doctor said that he had been killed after being tied up and abducted because there were no signs of resistance on his hands etc.

Kohsar Police Station in Islamabad registered an FIR No.466 dated 01.11.2006 under section 302/34 PP against unknown assailants on the complaint of Mr. Zishan Ismail Khan the younger son of Malik Ismail Shaheed and started the investigation but even after a whole year, there is no headway or any clue in the investigation. Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also done an investigation but nothing has come from their investigation too.

In the month of April and May 2007, Mr. Zishan Ismail Khan and my brother Mr. Abdul Hameed Khan an Attock based District Correspondent of an Urdu Daily received many phone calls by the same person from different mobile numbers, i.e. 03226325452, 03226337143, 03067109779, 03325219140, NO NUMBER and NO CALLER ID. The person sounded suspicious and he tried to pressurise them about the police investigation by saying that they should go along with the police and agree with them with out any evidence. He told Mr. Zishan that he was a journalist and another time he said that his name was Rizwan and he was a Major from an Intelligence agency. My family members told about these phone calls to FIA Officers and an Islamabad based senior journalist Mr. Asim Rana who was the concerned by the journalist community in this case. Mr Asim Rana asked him for a meeting. He promised but did not turn up then he told Police officers too about this suspicious phone caller but he has heard nothing from them.

Even though the Government Officials have claimed that the actual culprits will be caught very soon, and after the noisy protest of the journalist community, Mr. Shaukat Aziz (then) Prime Minister, Mr. Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao (then) Federal Interior Minister, have been ordered two separate inquiries for a full investigation, and Mr. Mohammad Ali Durani (then) Federal Information Minister assured the journalist community and our family members that they will find the actual murderers very soon but nothing has come from any inquiry or interrogations.

The fact of the matter is that, after a whole year of the brutal murder of a senior journalist Mohammad Ismail Malik, who was such a very kind, humble and caring person, there is no headway or any clue as to finding the actual murderers because the investigative departments have not done their work properly and they have ruined the whole investigation.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has expressed concern over the "closure" of the murder inquiry of senior journalist, Mohammad Ismail Malik, who was killed on Nov 1, 2006 by unidentified assailants, in Islamabad, and demanded the arrest of the killers. PFUJ, in a statement at the occasion of his first death anniversary, paid tribute to Malik's services in the field of journalism and said while the government made tall claims of resolving high-profile cases, but it appeared that the murders of journalists did not fall in that "category." That was perhaps was why none of the 21 murder cases of journalists, killed from October 1999 till October 2007, had been solved, it added. Journalists staged a protest demonstration in front of the camp office of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club on Thursday at this occasion and criticised the government for its failure to arrest murderers of senior journalist Mohammad Ismail Malik, who was killed one year ago. They were also critical of slow pace of the investigation in the case. Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Secretary General Mazhar Abbass said the slow investigation had made the journalists to assume that the state-run institutions were involved in the murder. He asked the government to expedite the investigation process to arrest the culprits.

Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) President Afzal Butt condemned negligence of the authorities concerned and demanded constitution of a committee of journalists to press the administration to speed up the investigation. He said, "No stone will be left unturned to press the government in this regard." Mr. Butt said the government agencies had completed investigation into the murder of a foreign journalist within two weeks, but nothing had been done for local journalists. Senior journalist Mian Sohail Iqbal alleged that police and the state-run agencies were behind the murder of Ismail Malik as they had twisted the facts that could lead to arrest of culprits. The speakers lauded the services of late Ismail Malik in the field of journalism and said he was committed to his profession.

We appeal to all concerned to please exert some pressure on the Pakistani Government to reopen the murder case of my elder brother and a senior journalist Mohammad Ismail Malik and provide justice to our family in finding the actual murderers and bringing them to exemplary punishment.

Abdul Waheed Khan
385, Coventry Road,
Small Heath, B10 0SW,
Birmingham (UK)