The police have acquired three videos of the attack on the Saudi diplomat from closed-circuit cameras of the banks, restaurants and houses located near the crime scene.
Even though the video clarifies where the culprits came from and how they targeted the diplomat, the police have yet to identify the men on the motorcycles. Their work has become more complicated given that the suspects were wearing helmets and none of the witnesses saw their faces.
On Monday, Hassan M. al Kahtani, the Saudi diplomat, also a security officer of the Saudi consulate in Karachi, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in DHA Phase VI.
Capital City Police Officer Saud Mirza told The Express Tribune that, “we are trying to enhance them [footage] to identify the assailants. It will also help us trace and capture the group involved in the attack”.
Other officials added that the investigators are receiving help from intelligence agencies.
The breakthrough in the investigations that the authorities are hoping to achieve will come from suspects who are already in police custody. The police are hoping that suspects who worked for banned outfits and blacklisted organisations may be able to identify these men.
The investigators are also looking forward to obtaining more CCTV footage and forensic reports, said Mirza. “The videos are proving helpful but we cannot share more details with the media because that would create hurdles in the investigation.”
Mirza added, though, that they are still not sure whether the hand-grenade attack on the Saudi mission last week and the target killing are linked. “The threat looms until the group is busted,” he admitted.
He declined to accept that the law-enforcement agencies have failed. “This is a war and it is difficult to defeat them on every activity. We are doing as much as we can.” On Tuesday, the police refused to let motorcyclists pass through Khayaban-e-Shamsheer — from Gizri Graveyard to the Khayaban-e-Hafiz intersection.
Around 100 more security personnel have been added to the Saudi detail, he added. “We have adopted stricter security measures and that is being kept a secret,” he said.
A Sindh Rangers’ official told The Express Tribune that as many as 400 personnel have been deployed around DHA and Clifton. An official of the Foreign Security Cell claimed that over 300 personnel have been deployed.
Meanwhile, the Rangers’ deployment at the Bahrain Consulate — located across the street from where the Saudi diplomat was killed — was changed. Some of the old guards are, however, still working.
A policeman outside the Bahrain Consulate said that, “No one here saw any culprit because there was a lot of traffic”. The other Rangers men insisted that they were deployed after the attack.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2011.
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