Black sheep: AVCC inspector held for being TTP’s informant

Inspector reveals that a number of policemen in Sindh work for the banned group.

KARACHI: Police arrested an inspector of the Anti Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) on Thursday for his alleged involvement in the murders of his colleagues while serving as a mole for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The AVCC Chief Niaz Ahmed Khosa while talking to The Express Tribune said that the suspect Rana Ishrat was finally arrested on Thursday after being kept on the watch list since January this year. “During that time, Ishrat went to the Khyber Agency twice where he arranged meetings with the TTP deputies and also brought in a sizeable amount of money to distribute among his associates in Karachi.”

SSP Khosa said that Ishrat, who has been with the AVCC for eight years, came under suspicion in December last year during an encounter with the TTP militants in Keamari. The police had rescued two abductees and three militants were killed during the operation but Ishrat’s overall conduct was not right, said SSP Khosa.

Police have also registered an FIR against Inspector Rana Ishrat.

Hailing from Sialkot, Ishrat was also suspected for his help to the TTP militants in killings of an AVCC assistant sub-inspector, Muhammad Faiz Ahmed, and other policemen. ASI Ahmed, who was known for being active in operations against militants, was ambushed on January 1, 2013 in Metroville.

SSP Khosa said that the alleged mole, however, had revealed during the initial phase of investigation that a number of police officials in the Sindh police department work for the TTP and provide information in targeting the policemen who were involved in operations against the banned outfit.

When asked how the police department would deal with those ‘black sheep’, SSP Khosa said that it was the responsibility of his seniors to chalk out a strategy to deal with this quandary.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2013.