PHOTO: REUTERS
RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi police have arrested the alleged killers of a traffic warden who was gunned down while resisting a robbery near Combined Military Hospital two months ago.
Police said the four suspects have also confessed to at least 10 other crime incidents in the garrison city.
The suspects were Butt Dairy Shop early in the morning on July 23 in Dheri Hassanabad locality. They had snatched Rs7,500 and a mobile phone at gunpoint from the owner and staff of the dairy shop. But just as they were about to leave, the shopkeeper’s brother-in-law, traffic warden Asghar Butt, came by on his motorbike. Butt tried to overpower the robbers but they shot him twice and fled. The warden died immediately.
Caught in the dragnet
Civil Lines police had registered a robbery and murder case against unidentified suspects and there was no headway in catching them.
A few weeks later on August 12, the police arrested three suspects and recovered unlicensced weapons from them. The three suspects who were nabbed were identified as Umar Naveed, Bilal Farooq, Raheel Sajid while the fourth accomplice, Liaqat Ali, is still at large.
During interrogation, the suspects confessed to at least 10 incidents of street crimes including the murder of the traffic warden two months ago. Police held an identity parade in the warden murder case and obtained their six-day remand on September 26.
A 30-bore pistol which the suspects used to kill Butt has also been recovered, apart from stolen cash amounting to Rs5800 and two stolen motorcycles. Stolen cash of Rs4,000 in another robbery case has also been recovered.
ASP snubbed
Meanwhile ASP Civil Lines Usman Tariq, who also has the acting charge of SP-Potohar Division, was snubbed by journalists after he kept the media persons waiting for him at a press conference on Tuesday. The police had arranged the press conference to brief media about police performance including the arrest of the above-mentioned gang. However, the ASP stayed put in his office while journalists waited for him in the hall beside his office.
When he finally arrived 45 minutes after the scheduled time, journalists removed all the mikes and the cameras and left the room, telling the officer that he should be punctual about time. The press conference was over even before the officer could utter a word. The police tried to placate the reporters in order to bring them back in but reporters said it had become a routine for police bosses to first invite the media and then keep them waiting for no particular reason.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2018.
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