ISI, Rangers officials involved in Sindh IG incident suspended: ISPR

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Tuesday said that 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 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.

 The military’s media wing also added that they will be held to account for violating the code of conduct at the General Headquarters,

“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 a misunderstanding between the two-state institutions,” it said.

It was last month, the ISPR said the Army chief had taken notice of and ordered an immediate inquiry into the “Karachi incident”.

On October 19, Sindh Police arrested Capt (R) Safdar from a hotel in Karachi. The arrest was reported to be in a case registered against him for “violating the sanctity of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum” a day after the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) had staged a rally in the city.