Complainant turns out homicide mastermind

Police discover man who filed FIR regarding murder of four gunmen in his employ was actually behind killing.

LAHORE:

The cantonment police have discovered that the man who had filed an FIR regarding the murder of four gunmen in his employ was actually behind the killing. The four men had been riddled with 70 bullets each when they were ambushed while travelling in a Land Cruiser along with the complainant. The police say the complainant master minded the ambush to implicate the man who allegedly married his former girlfriend and to kill his business partner, who he believed was planning to part with him.

Athar Mehmood Shahid Khan had reported in an FIR, filed on October 24, 2010, that he along with his four gunmen, Muhammad Ashraf, Syed Murtaza, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Tariq, was heading from Barkat Market to his home in Cantt in his Land Cruiser when eight people on four motorcycles accosted them near Leeds College in Harbanspura with Kalashnikov rifles. The four gunmen were shot down instantly and the assailants took away Khan’s licensed Kalashnikov as they fled from the scene.

The complainant had nominated 10 people in this case including Rustam Khan, Ghulam Fareed, Zubair alias Bhola, Maqsood Ahmed, Abdul Majeed, Umar Daraz, Muhammad Mursaleen and Habibullah alias Akbar Khan.

Police investigation, however, revealed that Khan, who had been president of the Labour Wing of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam (PML-Q) had been friends with a Saba Gul Khan, who been the vice president of the same wing.

In 2009, Saba married Rustam Khan and the complainant developed a grudge against Rustam.

One of the deceased, Ashraf, was a business partner of the complainant and had told him that he planned to develop his business separately.

The complainant, the police investigation said, had devised a strategy to kill Ashraf and implicate Rustam in the case.

According to the investigation report, a copy of which is available to The Express Tribune, on November 13, a meeting was arranged between the men nominated by the complainant and the complainant himself. The ten men professed their innocence.

The complainant, then, changed his stance. This time around he said Rustam Khan, Zubair alias Bhola, Umer Daraz and Fayyaz Shafi may not have been the real culprits.

The investigation officer wrote that each the nominated men had an alibi. The complainant was, however, still pushing for action to be taken against them for seemingly some ulterior interests. The report also said that Khan, himself, was accused of a long list of crimes. Cases of murder and attempted murder were registered against him and he was counted amongst the prominent organisers of gambling in Lahore.

Investigation officer Ghulam Abbas told The Tribune that a thorough investigation found that the complainant was involved in the case.

“The complainant has changed his story and given conflicting accounts of the incident.

He offered us a huge bribe, when we refused he tried to have the investigation officer changed,” Abbas said.

The officer said that a three member review board was constituted on his application. It was headed by the Investigation SSP and included two SPs.

Abbas said the board had established that the complainant was a history-sheeter and ran a gambling operation. Also, they discovered that 15 cases had been registered against him: six at the Mughulpura police station, six at the Garden Town police station and three at the Lytton Road police station.

Khan when contacted denied the investigation’s findings and said that the police had given undue favour to the accused by exonerating them. He admitted that he had filed an application for changing the investigation officer. Khan said he would not rest till action was taken against the attackers.

He said he had been miraculously saved in the ambush which made the police doubt him.

He denied any business rivalry with Ashraf and added that he bore no grudge against Rustam. The police might soon arrest Khan in the case that he himself registered.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2011.