The police on Wednesday registered a first information report (FIR) over the attack on Karachi Bar Association (KBA) President Aamir Nawaz Warraich outside a cafe on II Chundrigar Road the previous night.
Warraich was left bloodied on Tuesday after an attack, which he blamed on six individuals who he alleged had targeted him over his stance on the canals issue, a position he vowed he would not back down from.
South Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Syed Asad Raza told Dawn.com that the FIR was registered today at the Mithadar Police Station on Warraich’s complaint under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 324 (attempted murder), 337-A (I) (assault to the head), 379 (punishment for theft) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code against five unidentified suspects.
The suspects were also booked under Section 3 (offences and punishments) of the Lawyers Welfare and Protection Act, 2023 and Section 21 (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.
“CCTV footage obtained from the spot showed that as he disembarked from the car, five suspects riding two motorcycles ostensibly chasing him began beating him and fled,” the DIG said.
The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, said Warraich stated at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday that the KBA would block the Sindh-Punjab border on April 12 if the controversial canal project was not stopped.
The next day, he alleged that he received a call from an unidentified number which he did not answer. On Tuesday, he received a call from an unidentified number, where the caller told him “you are busy, therefore, I will talk to you later”, according to the FIR.
He said he left his law chamber on Tuesday, dropped a colleague near her home and set out for Cafe Bogey
Warraich said a motorcyclist tried to stop him near Tibet Centre on MA Jinnah Road, adding that when he reached Café Bogey, five/six unidentified suspects attacked and began beating him.
The FIR added that the suspects hit his head and face with blunt instruments to kill him, and also stole Warraich’s phone, wristwatch and car keys.
The KBA president said that through social media, he learned that a woman and her two brothers planned the attack with the unidentified suspects. He said the same woman had issued additional threats of violence and he wanted legal action against her, her brothers and his assailants.
Warraich said the attack was aimed at preventing him from continuing his opposition to the canal project.
Part of the Green Pakistan Initiative, the Cholistan canals project aims to irrigate a total of 4.8 million acres (1.9 million hectares) of barren land by constructing six canals — two each in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. Five of these canals will be built on the Indus River, while the sixth will constructed along the Sutlej River, supplying approximately 4,120 cusecs of water to irrigate the Cholistan desert in Punjab.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and Chief of the Army Staff Gen Asim Munir inaugurated the ambitious Cholistan project to irrigate south Punjab’s lands on February 15 amid public uproar and strong reservations in Sindh. What is being hailed as a game-changer for Punjab has triggered an uproar in Sindh, which believes that the scheme will further disturb the ecological balance in the province and deprive it of its mandated water share. The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution against the construction of six new canals on the Indus River in March.
The KBA has also been one of the bar associations foremost in opposing the project.
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