Late poet Ahmed Faraz’s stolen medals returned to his family

The late poet’s Nishan-e-Imtiaz and Tamgha-e-Imtiaz were taken away in a robbery in 2015

ISLAMABAD: Authorities have finally recovered late Urdu poet Ahmed Faraz's two state medals which were stolen in a robbery in 2015 and handed them over to his family.

The Nishan-e-Imtiaz and Tamgha-e-Imtiaz were among other valuables taken away by robbers from the family’s house in G-6 Sector of Islamabad in April 2015.

On Friday, Senate Standing Committee on Interior Chairman Rehman Malik handed over the medals to Senator Shibli Faraz, the poet's son who is also a member of the committee.



Police said the medals were found broken and had to be put together.

SSP Operations Sajid Kiani said of the seven men believed to be involved in the robbery, four had been arrested while three had fled to Afghanistan.

Although the police says that medals are original, the late poet’s son doubts that claim.

“I'm unaware of when the medals were recovered from the suspects,” Shibli told The Express Tribune.



The senator also expressed his disappointment over the police's failure to nab the thieves who had allegedly stolen his tax records and other documents from his house in July this year.

On July 22, the senator had claimed that burglars had broken into his house in Sector F-7 and taken away his tax and business records.

The burglars, he alleged, had also taken away many documents and archives of the Ahmed Faraz Trust including several handwritten manuscripts of the late poet.

Talking about the burglary, Shibli said no police official had even bothered to contact him so far.

The committee chairman directed Islamabad police chief Khalid Khattak to assign an officer to look into the case.



To a question about the murder of a Shia cleric in Islamabad’s Sector E-11 in 2014, IGP Khattak said police were still working on the case and had nothing concrete to share.

The committee also recommended to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa home department and the IGP to form a joint investigation team to re-investigate the 2016 murder of a British national, Ali Asghar Khan, in Haripur.

The British national's wife, Farzana Khan, appeared before the committee and expressed her dissatisfaction over the police investigation. She pointed out several flaws in the probe.

The Haripur district police officer said five people nominated in the case had been arrested while one was still at large.

Rehman ordered that the inquiry be transferred from the Haripur police to a joint investigation team and a report be furnished before the committee after a month.

Senator Rehman Malik hands over the medals to Senator Shibli Faraz, Ahmed Faraz's son. PHOTO: Express