PTI councillor among two arrested for journalist’s murder

Councillor remanded to Haripur prison, man remanded to three-day physical custody

HARIPUR: Police in Haripur have arrested a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) woman councillor and a local man for last month’s murder of a journalist in Haripur.

They were remanded by an anti-terror court on Saturday.

Last month, Bakhshish Elahi, the bureau chief of local Urdu-language newspaper K2 Times, had been killed by unidentified motorcyclists near Lora Chowk just as when he was heading to work.



The attacker fired five shots on his body, one on his head and four others on his chest and belly. Bakhshish Elahi succumbed to his injuries on the spot.

His body was shifted to Women and Children Hospital Haripur and later, after completing medico-legal formalities, was handed over to his heirs for burial. After the slain journalist’s brother filed a case, the Haripur police arrested Hina Akhtar, a PTI councillor on a reserved seat, and Hanif Akhtar.

They were presented before a judicial magistrate.

According to the prosecution, Hina, who had personal differences with Elahi, contacted Hanif, who too is a journalist and the bureau chief of another local Urdu language newspaper.

Hanif told Hina that he too was upset with Elahi and that it had become important to “take care of him”.

In her statement before the magistrate, the PTI councillor said that they decided to offer target killers Rs500,000 to assassinate Elahi. She paid Hanif Rs100,000 in cash and promised to pay the remaining sum of Rs150,000 later.



The judicial magistrate transferred the case to an anti-terrorism court, which remanded Hanif in the custody of the counter-terrorism department for three days. Hina was remanded in judicial custody at the Haripur central prison.

The police said they had recorded the statements of dozens of people and used modern investigation methods to solve the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2017.