Police claim to have caught Charanjit’s alleged murderer

Say suspect was part of a gang of target killers

PESHAWAR: Police in the provincial capital on Thursday said that they had arrested a man who was suspected of killing interfaith harmony activist Charanjit Singh in his store near Scheme Chowk late last month.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said that they had arrested Shaheryar, a resident of Kagawala in Badhaber who was involved in Singh’s murder on May 29.

According to the press statement, police said they had registered an FIR against unidentified attackers in the case and launched investigations into the attack.



During the probe, they said, they managed to find clues which led them to the arrest of Shaheryar on Thursday.

“This man has been involved in many cases of target killing and he has provided important information about his aides as well,” police said.

A CTD official termed the arrest as an important breakthrough as far as the targeted killing of the popular Sikh leader was concerned, adding that it would lead police to other group members.

“An important gang has been busted indeed,” he claimed.

Singh was sitting inside his general store on the afternoon of May 29 when a lone gunman barged into his store and shot him. Since it was a hot afternoon in Ramazan, there were not many people in the market and the assailant was able to make good his escape.



A native of Kurram, Singh had moved to the provincial capital in the 1970’s for business.

Apart from running his general store in Peshawar for the better part of four decades, he led a second life as a scholar, working for interfaith harmony.

Having a thorough knowledge of the Sikh religion, he was often invited to speak at universities and other intellectual gatherings about the different aspects of the Sikh faith.

He had also written three books on the subject.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2018.