Three mercenaries confess to murders

KARACHI:

Three alleged target killers and two drug peddlers were caught in two separate raids in the city on Wednesday.

The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) arrested three men, Arif Rahim, Sajid and Amir, from near Safoora Chowrangi in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. According to the SIU chief, SSP Shahjahan Khan, the men confessed about killing two men on sectarian grounds in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, in July last year. Khan said that the men were not affiliated with any political party or a religious organisation, but were mercenaries. They carried out the murders on the orders of Haroon and Baba and the investigators were looking for them.

In a separate raid, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) caught two drug peddlers and found 19 kilogrammes of heroin from them. Anwar Bukhsh and Shahid Khan were caught from near the Natha Khan bus stop but their gang leader, Akbar, escaped. CID SSP Fayyaz Khan said the heroin was worth Rs190 million in the international market. The men also confessed to supplying drugs and revealed that their gang had 12 members, he added.

ASI shot dead by robbers

A 45-year-old traffic police ASI, Abdul Jabbar, was shot dead as he tried to catch robbers in Saddar, on Wednesday. According to sources, the robbers were trying to escape after mugging a man, Fahad, when Jabbar intervened and was shot in the chest. He was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre but did not survive his injuries.

The police arrested the accused and found two TT pistols in his possession. The police said that they were known criminals who were involved in multiple cases of street crimes.

In a separate incident, Bahadurabad SHO Irfan Asif was shot on his hand while trying to arrest three armed men, who were robbing passersby, in Dhoraji Colony. Asif was taken to a private hospital on stadium road. The police were unable to catch the robbers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012.