Behind bars: CID arrests three suspects for Shia killings

Police say the men confess their involvement in a dozen murders. PHOTO: FILE/ABID NAWAZ/ EXPRESS

The suspects were identified as Muhammad Taufeeq Ansari, Salahuddin Israel and Maulana Muhammad Rashid. They were arrested in an encounter with the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Wednesday night. According to CID SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan, the suspects were affiliated with the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan. He said that the men had arrived in Mauripur, along the Hawksbay Road, for a meeting on their motorcycles. “We have been on the hunt for these suspects for quite a while,” he said. “Ansari was arrested before for killing Shias.” He added that when the suspects attacked the lawyers at Pakistan Chowk, their main targets were Kafeel Jaffri and Babar Ali.

The police said that during the interrogation, the men had confessed to being involved in 12 murders, including the three Shia lawyers on January 19, City Court typist Mukhtar Abbas, Maulana Abdul Kareem Naqashbandi in 2005 and the attack on an Ahmediyya doctor in 2004. They added that the suspects were making plans to kill a Shia scholar, two doctors and a man who followed up on court cases involving the Shia murders. At least seven lawyers were killed in January and in most cases they were targeted near the courts or their offices and shot with 9mm pistols.

The police seized three AK-47 rifles, three 9mm pistols, five hand grenades, two TT pistols, 150 bullets and two motorcycles from them. According to Aslam, these men often made it out of the cases as the witnesses refused to testify in court. He said that they will take the militants to the anti-terrorism court.

Lawyers react

While commenting on the arrest of the suspects, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, Muhammad Yasin Khan Azad, told The Express Tribune that it was commendable progress. He said that this was the first case in which the bar association took an initiative and called for a countrywide strike. He added that the suo motu action taken by the chief justice of the Sindh High Court and the prime minister’s announcement of a reward for information on the arrest had proved to be helpful.

The honorary secretary of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA), Khalid Mumtaz, said that the Sindh IG had promised to arrest the suspects in a week and he had kept the promise. He added that the arrests must have been made on the basis of some solid information and leads. The former vice chairperson of the Sindh Bar Council, Iftikhar Javed Kazi, said that it was good news if the real suspects were arrested.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2012.