Creating hysteria: Police chief slagged off for ‘parade plot’

Nisar reprimands police for suggesting link between arms’ seizure and 23rd March parade.

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan gave the inspector general of police a dressing down for blowing out of proportion the arms cache seized from two men in Islamabad and erroneously linking it to a plot to sabotage the March 23rd parade.

While taking a strong exception to the publication of media reports about the security of the Pakistan Day parade, Chaudhry Nisar took out his anger on IGP Tahir Alam Khan and other members of the Islamabad police, said a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry on Monday.

Nisar reprimanded the IGP over the issue, saying one could not link the seizure of the weapons during a search operation to the 23rd March parade without any concrete evidence. The minister said the inspector general’s actions were tantamount to creating unnecessary panic and alarm.

The ministry spokesperson pointed out that  all law enforcement agencies were working in close coordination, day and night, ahead of the Pakistan Day parade.

On Sunday, the Islamabad police claimed to have foiled a plan to sabotage the 23rd March parade by arresting two suspects and recovering a huge cache of arms from their possession. The alleged suspects, identified as Sagheer Ahmed and Raja Safeer Akber, were arrested during a raid in Ghauri Town, a suburban housing society.

Police had revealed that the suspects include the son and guard of the Ghauri Town Housing Society owner, Haji Ali Akber, a local real estate developer who has heavily invested in several housing societies in the federal capital.

On a tip-off, police raided a house in the locality and seized six Kalashnikovs, three 12-bore rifles, two 30-bore pistols, two SMGs, 9mm pistols, repeaters and 2,834 rounds of ammunition from the suspects’ possession.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2015.