Extremist literature found in missing cop’s room

IG submits report after NCHR took suo motu notice of disappearance of policeman

ISLAMABAD: Nearly four months after the mysterious disappearance of a police commando from the capital, police have suggested that he may have been radicalised after they found extremist literature, including a book on the life of Osama Bin Laden from his room.

Constable Ali Ahmed, who was part of the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) of the capital police and was living at the barracks at Police Lines, has been missing since the night of September 22.



His family feared that he had been kidnapped and lodged a complaint with Shams Colony Police Station on September 28. An investigation was launched soon after Ahmed’s disappearance was reported, and given the unusual nature of the case, the investigation was handed over to the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) of the police.



The police had exhausted all leads, even examining Ahmed’s cell phone records and interrogated his contacts, but have been unable to locate him.

Police investigators say that they found books in Ahmed’s room “which reveal that the missing person was a ‘religious’-minded person.”

The books also included one on former al Qaeda supremo titled Osama Bin Laden: Mujahid Ya Dehshatgard (Osama Bin Laden: Religious Warrior or Terrorist).

The new information surfaced in a recent letter written by the inspector general of the Islamabad Police to the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR).

In the letter, the IGP says an “investigation is being carried out on the basis of the recovered extremist religious books and literature and hectic efforts are being made to locate the missing person.”

It further says that correspondence was made with all provincial police chiefs, jail authorities, Edhi centres and hospitals to obtain information about the missing official but no clue has been found so far.



The commission had taken a suo motu notice and sought a reply from IGP Islamabad after reading a story on the case published in The Express Tribune last month.

Investigators said they had ruled out the possibility of kidnapping for ransom or revenge kidnapping since Ahmed had no enmity or quarrel with anybody. Moreover, they also said there were no eyewitnesses to Ahmed’s suspected kidnapping.

The missing policeman was in contact with the family till September 22. On September 23, relatives said his phone had been switched off. They contacted his friends but found no clue of his whereabouts. On September 28, his brother came to Islamabad from Sahiwal and tried to search for him. Soon after, he lodged a kidnapping case against unidentified persons.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2017.