Making his bow: Bugvi finally relinquishes post of operations head

Heads off to Punjab as Amin Bukhari takes over his post temporarily

ISLAMABAD: Over three weeks after his transfer orders came through, Islamabad Police Operations-Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Najeebur Rehman Bugvi finally relinquished charge of his post on Monday.

He was provisionally replaced by SSP Amin Bukhari who was given additional charge of the post.

SSP Bugvi has been transferred to the Punjab police where he is believed to join former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) inspector general of police Nasir Durrani as he embarks on police reforms in the province.

SSP Bugvi’s transfer had been notified on August 31. Usually, officers relinquish charge of their posts and set off for their new assignments soon after the transfer orders come in. However, SSP Bugvi was not relieved by the capital police and was directed to continue in his post until the Ashura was over.

With Ashura culminating peacefully over the weekend, Bugvi relinquished charge of his post on Monday.

SSP Bukhari, who heads the newly-formed counter-terrorism force of the capital police, has been handed the additional responsibilities of Operations-SSP until the Establishment Division notifies a permanent replacement for Bugvi.

A few weeks ago the capital’s police chief wrote to the chief commissioner, requesting him to approach the government and have SSP Ahmed Saeed transferred to Islamabad as Operations- SSP.

Investigators show performance

Meanwhile, Investigation SP Gulfam Nasir Waraich held a news conference on Monday where he showcased performance of the crime investigation agency (CIA) wing of the capital police for the past month and a half.

SP Waraich said that the CIA had arrested 176 people in the past 45 days who were suspected to be involved in a host of criminal activities including murder, muggings and burglaries. He added that they had recovered 22 stolen cars, 14 motorbikes, valuables worth Rs23 million and weapons from these suspects.

SP Waraich further said that they had solved four ‘blind’ murders during this period as well. This included the four-year-old murder of Constable Zaheer Saqib.

The police officer had been killed while foiling a robbery attempt at a filling station within the remits of the Sabzi Mandi police station in 2014. SP Waraich said that they had finally managed to apprehend Constable Saqib’s killer.

The CIA investigators have also cracked the murder of Sepoy Ghulam Dastgir who had been killed while resisting robbers in the Tarnol area of the city earlier this year.

Police said they had also arrested three men who had allegedly killed a shopkeeper, Asad Iqbal, during an armed robbery at his general store in Tarnol and another shopkeeper, Faheem Akhtar, in Nilore. The three suspects have confessed to killing both the shopkeepers, SP Waraich claimed. Giving the break-up of the arrests, he said that 38 criminals arrested were involved in 20 cases of robbery while nine burglars, four involved in snatching valuables, 19 for carrying weapons and others for involvement in crimes of miscellaneous nature were arrested.

He added that police had also recovered 18 pistols, a revolver, 1,329 liquor bottles, 310 litres of un-bottled liquor, 77 cans of beer, two kilogrammes of hashish and 115 grammes of heroin from various suspects during this period.

During the past 45 days, SP Waraich said that as many as 74 criminal cases were submitted in relevant courts after investigations into them were completed.  The SP (investigation) said that anti-car lifting cell of the Islamabad Police arrested 40 people and recovered 22 cars and 11 motorbikes from them. He said that names of those policemen showing good performance in arresting these criminals would be forwarded to senior officers for special prizes.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2018.