Legendary killer with a record 100 murders nabbed by CID

The elusive criminal was nabbed from New Karachi’s Eidgah ground.

KARACHI:

Sindh police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) has arrested the legendary killing machine of Karachi, Ajmal Pahari, who is suspected of being involved in more than 100 murders.

Pahari’s name became synonymous with fear not only for his numerous deadly feats, but also recently for extortion and land grabbing in the city. Police officials had kept a tab on his activities for a long time but they admit that he had been set free numerous times because he was strongly backed by one political party. The arrest became possible after this party “suspended” its support, police say.

This is not the first time that Pahari has been arrested.

In 1997, an anti-terrorism court had declared Pahari a proclaimed offender (along with a high-profile political leader and founder of a party) in a case related to the killing of four American Union Texas company employees along with their Pakistani driver.

Back then, he was suspected of being involved in numerous other murders, including that of MNA Akram Nadeem, ASI Arif Shah, activists Shani and Jamal, PPP Orangi town president Iqbal Mama, dissident activists Abid and Umer Goga, and eight more activists of the Goga group, DSP Shamim, and 12 people in Orangi. Back then, the reward for Pahari was one million rupees and he was nabbed by the Central Investigation Agency of the Karachi police in 2000.

However, within five years, Pahari was acquitted in all cases and was released in 2005. Since then, Anti-Extremism Cell SSP Omar Shahid claims that the suspect has committed 58 more cold-blooded murders. And to add insult to injury, Pahari has also made millions of rupees through his network of target killers and extortionists, the officer added.

The elusive criminal had been on the run but was eventually nabbed by the authorities in a joint operation conducted by Shahid and Counter Terrorism Unit SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan from New Karachi’s Eid Gah ground Sector 5-D.

A press release issued by the CID includes a three-page long list of targeted killings allegedly conducted by Pahari and his cohorts from 2006 to 2011.

The murders took place all over the city, including Lyari, Liaqatabad, New Karachi, Bilal Colony, Garden, Korangi, Pak Colony, Bilal Colony and Korangi. In some cases, dozens of people were killed in a single incident. For example, in 2007, Pahari killed 14 people in Pak Colony and knocked out five people in New Karachi in another wave of target killings in 2008.

When asked whether he was sure Pahari would not walk free again, Shahid told The Express Tribune that the police had done its job by nabbing the notorious killer and now it was for the investigation officers to build a strong case against the culprit in court.

He said it was for the courts to decide the fate of the suspect, who is believed to have committed dozens of murders since his release in 2005.

The SSP said the police was now on the hunt for Pahari’s cohorts and they were closing the net around his gang with the help of new information gained during his interrogation.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2011.