The incident: Sikandar expresses remorse in first conversation with police

Says he didn’t know Zamarud Khan was a political figure, that his actions were based on anger.

ISLAMABAD:

The gunman who engaged the capital’s security forces in a standoff on Jinnah Avenue on Thursday, Muhammad Sikandar, spoke to the police from his hospital bed for the first time on Monday.

Sikandar is being treated for bullet injuries — which he received when the police captured him on the night of August 15 — at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.

In snippets of the conversation recorded by the police, Sikandar appeared to be regretful and said he was ashamed of his actions. He added his actions were based on anger and that he didn’t know that Zamarud Khan was a political figure, sources revealed.

A team of senior police officials at the Police Lines Headquarters has taken charge of the investigations, the sources added.

The police also arrested a suspect named Akhtar, who is believed to have provided weapons and ammunition to Sikandar. Akhtar is reportedly a native of Kasur.

Data from a mobile phone confiscated from Sikandar helped the police track Akhtar down. Kohsar Police Station House Officer Hakim Khan confirmed the arrest but said the suspect was not being held at the police station.

According to the case registered by Kohsar police, Sikandar carried two rifles, one of which was a 5.56mm rifle, while 69 live rounds of ammunition were found in the car.

The police also arrested, and later released, three employees from the hotel in Aabpara where Sikandar and his family had stayed while in Islamabad. The hotel’s manager, requesting anonymity, said Sikandar and his family had checked out of the hotel on the night of August 14 and gone to Murree the next day in a rental car. The police are also looking for another suspect who may have supplied weapons to Akhtar and Sikandar.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2013.