Arshad Pappu case: Former Lyari SHO arrested for involvement in murder

Rangers have taken the inspector into 90-day custody

KARACHI: The Rangers arrested on Friday the former Lyari police station chief for his alleged involvement in the abduction and murder of notorious gangster Arshad Pappu.

Former SHO Inspector Chand Khan Niazi, one of the prime suspects in the murder case, was arrested by the Rangers on Thursday night. "The Rangers arrested Niazi from Gulistan Colony, Lyari after a raid was conducted on a tip-off," claimed the Rangers spokesperson. "He is accused of abducting and killing Pappu, his brother Yasir Arafat and a companion, Shera Pathan." The accused has been taken into 90-day custody after he was produced before an anti-terrorism court on Friday, the spokesperson explained.

Inspector Niazi was declared a proclaimed offender by the court and had disappeared since the pronouncement. He was hiding in Mianwali and recently arrived in the city, where he was residing in the Gulistan Colony of Lyari. Two other former SHOs - Yousuf Baloch and Javed Baloch - are already in jail. Niazi, along with his accomplices, had abducted Pappu from Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in March 2013 and later handed Pappu, his brother and Pathan over to the Pappu's rival group, headed by Uzair Baloch. They were reportedly paid millions of rupees by Baloch for handing Pappu and others over to him.  The rival group members allegedly then severely tortured the trio, followed by Pappu's brutal murder at the hands of Baloch's men. Pappu had earlier been acquitted in the murder case of Faiz Muhammad alias Mama Faizu who was Baloch's father.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2016.