Customs inspector murder: Warrants issued for Ayyan, two customs officials

RAWALPINDI: Investigators looking into the murder of a customs inspector here obtained on Thursday arrest warrants for model Ayyan Ali, who is facing currency smuggling charges in a related case.

The Waris Khan police wanted to question the model in the murder of Customs Inspector Chaudhry Ejaz Mahmood, as his wife had accused the model of being behind the murder. Mahmood was looking into the currency smuggling case when he was killed.

Area Magistrate Gulfam Butt on Thursday issued warrants for the arrest of the model and two Pakistan Customs officials — Zargham and Dr Haroon — after a formal request from the police.

Mahmood was shot and wounded on June 2 2015 outside his house in limits of Waris Khan Police. He died at Benazir Bhutto Hospital two days later.

In a statement on May 14, 2016, Saima Ejaz, widow of the customs official, said Ali was responsible for the murder of her husband and her name needed to be put on the exit control list. She further said that the police needed to investigate Ali’s role  in the murder case.

In here statement, Saima said that her husband was in charge of the state warehouse, Air Freight Unit (AFU), PIA cargo at Benazir Bhutto International Airport in 2015. She said that her husband took the money into custody in March last year.

Saima said that Ejaz would tell her about the tremendous pressure for being associated with the currency smuggling case. She had claimed that her husband told her that some unknown men had been asking him to make some fake entries in the official record to favour Ali. She said that Ejaz told her that the callers had asked him that if he did not cooperate with them, they could take his life.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2016.