Amanullah Niazi case: After nine years, police bring alleged target killer to court

The jail superintendent was murdered by Ubaid alias K2 back in 2006

KARACHI: The police produced alleged target killer Ubaid Khursheed alias K2 before an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in yet another murder case on Thursday.

The alleged target killer is accused of killing Karachi Central Prison’s deputy superintendent, Amanullah Khan Niazi, in 2006.

Niazi was shot dead along with six of his associates allegedly by Ubaid nearly nine years ago. The investigation officer of the case claimed that Ubaid has confessed to the murder during the interrogation. Ubaid was also named as a proclaimed offender in the said case.

Along with the remand papers, the police also submitted an interrogation report to the ATC-IX, which had Ubaid’s personal history and the plot to kill Niazi. The report says Niazi was killed because he was reluctant to facilitate inmates belonging to a political party, including death row inmate Saulat Mirza, Nadir Shah and Saeed alias Bharam. Niazi, the report stated, did not let the women visiting them [Mirza, Shah and Saeed] in jail stay beyond visiting hours.

Allegedly, Saeed was angry about Niazi not cooperating. As soon as he was released from jail, he started plotting against him. During the interrogation, Ubaid claimed that he was given the task along with at least a dozen other men.

The plan was set in motion on June 15, 2006, some assailants were out in the field in a car while some were on motorcycles. The assailants and Ubaid were being instructed by Saeed over the phone.

Ubaid was the leader of one of the three groups formed for the purpose. They were told to disperse in teams and wait around the jail for Niazi to come out. As soon as Saeed told them that their target was on the move, the assailants were on alert.

They followed Niazi’s convoy which, at the time, was just a hi-roof van and a car, all the way from central jail to Saddar. When his vehicle stopped at a traffic signal near the Mobile Market, the assailants opened fire at him. At least six people, including Niazi, were killed in the attack while five others were injured.

The investigation report named as many as a dozen suspects as absconders in the case. While three men identified as Sajjad, Tanvir alias Chand and Ubaid were shown as arrested. The ATC-IX judge sent the arrested suspects to police custody on a week’s physical remand, directing the police to submit a progress report of the case at the next hearing.

This is the fifth case brought up against Ubaid, since his arrest in the March 11 raid at the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) headquarters. Ubaid was also remanded in three other cases of murder and possessing illicit weapons and explosives.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2015.