Supreme Court halts Kumbhar custodial killing trial before start

The Supreme Court has stayed the trial of Dr Shahnawaz Kumbhar over his alleged custodial killing and desecration, halting proceedings at the Mirpurkhas district and sessions court days before they were to begin on September 29.

The stay follows a petition by complainant Dr Ibrahim Kumbhar challenging the Sindh High Court's April 7 order that moved the case from the Anti-Terrorism Court to the sessions court.

A three-member Supreme Court bench issued notices to the Prosecutor General Sindh, Advocate General Sindh and Attorney General for Pakistan for October 13. Advocate Sajjad Ahmed Chandio, representing the complainant, argued that the case should continue before the Anti-Terrorism Court and objected to the circumstances of the transfer.

Chandio also told the court that Sindh's deputy prosecutor general, who was expected to prosecute the accused police officers, had instead filed an application on behalf of a former DIG and two former SSPs named in the FIR seeking the transfer. Because one of the FIRs was registered with the Federal Investigation Agency, the counsel argued the deputy prosecutor general had no jurisdiction and the matter should be handled by a federal law officer.

Dr Shahnawaz Kumbhar was shot dead on September 19, 2024 in what the complainant describes as a staged police encounter after he surrendered to Mirpurkhas police in Karachi in connection with a blasphemy FIR. His body was allegedly set on fire by a mob while being transported to a graveyard in Umerkot district for burial.

The first FIR was registered at Sindhri police station in Mirpurkhas on September 27, 2024 under sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Torture and Custodial Death Prevention and Punishment Act 2022. A second FIR was registered with the FIA's Composite Circle Mirpurkhas on October 29, 2024.

Former DIG Mirpurkhas Javed Sonharo Jiskani, former SSP Mirpurkhas Muhammad Asad Chaudhry and former SSP Umerkot Asif Raza Baloch are among 23 accused in the case. The three officers had asked the Anti-Terrorism Court Mirpurkhas to transfer the case to a district court, arguing that terrorism provisions should not apply. The ATC rejected their plea on October 23, 2025, and the Sindh High Court dismissed their criminal revision applications on December 12, 2025. A division bench later ordered the transfer on April 7, 2026.

The Supreme Court's stay means the sessions court cannot proceed with the trial scheduled for September 29 pending further orders.