Swift action: LeJ target killer remanded to police custody

He has been implicated in cases of attacking police and for possessing illicit weapons.

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court remanded on Tuesday an alleged target killer belonging to a banned militant outfit to police custody for interrogation, a day after his arrest was revealed.

Karachi Additional IG Ghulam Qadir Thebo, on Monday, claimed to have made a breakthrough in the investigations of multiple sectarian killings in the city by apprehending a 'key' suspect, Muhammad Nasir, with three aliases, Dhobi, BBC and Qadri Sahb, from Manghopir.

At a press conference held at the Central Police Office, AIG Thebo said that the suspect had confessed his involvement in at least 25 cases of sectarian target killings during the initial interrogation.

The suspect has been linked with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned militant organisation largely held responsible for the brutal Shia killings in Balochistan province.

DIG Feroz Shah had added that the suspect was also involved in the murder of Akbar Kumaili, son of a prominent Shia scholar Allama Abbas Kumaili, who, along with his guard, was gunned down in an ambush outside his ice factory in the Bhangoria Goth area of Azizabad in September of last year.

However, when the suspect was presented before the court, none of the aforementioned cases were mentioned. Instead, he was implicated in three cases of attacking police personnel with intent to murder and for possessing illicit weapons and explosives.

The hearing took place inside the chamber of the incharge judge of the ATC-II, Javed Alam, and subsequently the suspect was sent on a 14-day physical remand to police custody.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2015.