Rangers, ISI officers responsible for Karachi incident removed from posts: ISPR

The Court of Inquiry formed on orders of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has recommended the removal of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistan Rangers officials involved in the Karachi incident.

As per the statement released by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), all officers found responsible have been removed from their posts in light of the court of inquiry.

"It has been decided to remove the concerned officers from their current assignments for further departmental proceedings and disposal at [the Army's] General Headquarters (GHQ)," reads the statement.

They will be held to account for violating the code of conduct at the General Headquarters, the military’s media wing said.

"The Court of Inquiry has established that on the night of October 18/19, officers from Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) and the ISI sector Headquarters Karachi were considerably seized with the fallout of the desecration of Mazar-e-Quaid," the statement read.

"They [the security officers] were under increasing public pressure to ensure prompt action as per the law. Assessing the response of police authorities against this developing yet volatile situation to be slow and wanting, in a charged environment, the concerned ISI/Rangers officers decided to act, rather over-zealously," the statement added.

"They were indeed experienced enough to have acted more prudently and could have avoided creating an unwarranted situation that led to misunderstanding between the two state institutions," it said.

On October 19, Sindh Police nabbed Capt (R) Safdar from a hotel in Karachi. The arrest was reported to be in a case registered against him for chanting political slogans in the vicinity of the Mazar-e-Quaid.

The police registered a case against PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz, Capt (R) Safdar, and 200 others at the Brigade Police Station in Karachi for alleged desecration of Mazar-e-Quaid.

In the audio clip circulating on Twitter, Zubair purportedly said that Chief Minister Murad Shah confirmed to him that "they tried to put pressure on the Sindh Police first to arrest. When they refused to do that, Rangers kidnapped [the IGP]".

PML-N vice president Maryam had also alleged that the Sindh inspector general of police was forcibly "taken to the sector commander's office and asked to sign on the arrest orders".

She claimed that when the IGP showed reluctance, he was told that the arrest would be carried out by the Rangers. "After his signatures were forcibly taken on the arrest orders, he was told police would carry out the arrest."

The allegation was denied by Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi as "nonsense narrative".