Qutab Tarat was wanted for several murders and for shooting at the police. PHOTO:FILE
BAHAWALPUR:
Two criminals with head money were arrested on Monday after police teams raided their hideouts.
One of them was wanted for killing a Gujranwala union council nazim on December 7 besides several other murder, robbery and abduction charges.
Abbas Nagar police were informed about a criminal hideout in Laal Sohanra forest, a few kilometres from the city. They said a police team surrounded the area and looked for the criminals until they entered a house and arrested Saleem. They also claimed to have recovered illegal weapons from him.
They said there was no one else at the house at the time it was raided.
Saleem was wanted for killing former Gujranwala union council nazim Irfan Zafar a few weeks ago. The police had set a Rs1 million head money on Saleem. The family of the deceased, too, had announced a Rs150,000 reward for whoever helped the police arrest Saleem.
District Police Officer Sohail Habib Tajik told The Express Tribune that Saleem’s name was on the list of the 10 most wanted criminals in the region.
He said the raiding team, supervised by Syed Ali Raza Kazmi, the Saddar Circle sub-divisional police officer to arrest the criminal, had raided several places before Saleem could be arrested.
He hoped that information obtained from Saleem would help the police arrest other criminals.
He said apart from the nazim’s murder case, eight murder, robbery and abduction cases were traced against him in various police stations in Gujranwala and one in Sheikupura’s Narang police station.
Also on Monday, police arrested a criminal with Rs200,000 head money.
Qutab Tarat was arrested from kacha (river belt) area near Sadiqabad. He was wanted for several murders and for shooting at the police.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Zeeshan Shafique told The Express Tribune that the Machka police station was informed that six criminals were hiding in the kacha area near Dolatabad. A police team, supervised by the ASP himself, raided the hideout.
He said when police surrounded the house, the men inside started shooting at them. The police shot back. This continued for an hour after which the shooting from inside stopped.
Police then entered the house and arrested a man, later identified as Qutab Tarat, while his accomplices fled. He told police there had been five men besides him.
Police said they had recovered weapons and a car from the house. They said the arrested criminal was wanted in seven cases.
He was taken to the Machka police station.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2012.
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