OPP Murder: Day after hit, police peg it to TTP man killed in shoot-out

The white car was also apparently used as backup for the Rehman murder, says SHO Baloch.

KARACHI:

It would be a miracle if the suspected Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) commander killed in a shoot-out on Thursday turned out to be the one who ordered the high-profile hit less than 24 hours earlier on Parveen Rehman, a well-loved social worker of Orangi.

Karachi’s police, which has been under immense pressure from the Supreme Court of late, do not have a track record of solving cases in one day. And the TTP, which usually claims responsibility for attacks, has not for this one so far.

Nonetheless, this is the guess District West DIG Javed Odho is venturing. “We cannot say 100 per cent that he was involved but our intelligence and informers are indicating that he was,” he said. “If you look at the past, the TTP targets females, like the women polio workers.”

On Wednesday night, Orangi Pilot Project’s Parveen Rehman, 55, was shot at close range by what a witness said were two men on a motorcycle in Pirabad. Snap checking was amped up afterwards in the area. According to DIG Odho, on Thursday, a white Vitz was intercepted in the nearby Sultanabad, a shoot-out ensued and one suspect was shot dead. Three of his companions took off as the police came under heavy fire from the nearby hilltops.

The dead man was later identified as Qari Bilal of the TTP’s Sher Khan Mehsud group, active in Manghopir. The police said he was identified through a letter containing an oath of allegiance to the outfit found on his person. If true this would indicate that the TTP commanders carry around such documents on their person.

The white car was snatched earlier from an Asif Faqir from Manghopir.

“During the encounter we didn’t know who he would be,” said SHO Ashfaq Baloch. “But afterwards, informers identified him as the TTP commander.” He speculated that Bilal could have been directly involved in the Rehman hit but felt fairly certain he was at least indirectly involved. SHO Baloch also said that the white car was also apparently used as backup for the Rehman murder.

The problem with the TTP theory is that Rehman had been threatened by thugs from political parties as she worked against land grabbing and illegal hydrants among other projects in the restive Orangi Town.

“We cannot rule out that there were issues related to her projects,” admitted DIG Odho. “We are gathering information but up till now we haven’t seen any such link.”

Rehman generally stayed quiet about the threats she received but in January 2012, theworld.org published a story in which she narrated an incident in which land grabbers had threatened her and the OPP.

Criminals in Karachi have developed mutually beneficial ties with the local TTP in lawless areas like Manghopir but the TTP has not claimed responsibility for any crimes the others commit.

The police are looking into Rehman’s cell phone records and forensics is trying to see if there is a match between the 9mm weapon used to kill Rehman and the one found on the person of Qari Bilal.

Pirabad SHO Shahid Khan has been suspended and the police have registered FIR No. 104/13 against unidentified persons on the complaint of Rehman’s driver, Wali Dad. It would have helped if Wali Dad could make a positive ID on Qari Bilal but he told The Express Tribune that it had been too dark to see, the windows were rolled up and the firing was so sudden that he just tried to race the car out of the spot.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2013.