Bhatti murder, Silk Bank blast: Police closing in on prime suspects, IGP

Says investigations will bear fruit soon; hands over stolen vehicles back to their owners.

ISLAMABAD:

City’s top cop on Friday said police were closing in on the suspects involved in the assassination of minorities’ minister Shahbaz Bhatti and the suicide attack on a private bank in sector I-8.

Talking to media, the Inspector-General of Police Bani Amin said police investigators were very close to arresting the prime suspects in Bhatti murder case.

“The two suspects are abroad and we are working on ways to arrest them and bring them back,” said Amin. He added that all evidences examined till now lead towards Punjabi Taliban being behind the murder; however, the motive behind the killing could not be ascertained.

“Once the two prime suspects are arrested, the motive behind the killing could be known,” said the IGP. He claimed that police had found important leads into the case of Silk Bank suicide bombing and a breakthrough was expected in a couple of days.

He was speaking at a ceremony held to formally hand over stolen vehicles back to their owners. The vehicles were recovered by the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) of the police after they busted four gangs of criminals involved in carlifting cases.

Eight members of three gangs of car receivers and one of carjackers were arrested by the ACLC and 22 vehicles worth millions of rupees were recovered from their possession.

“The suspects had confessed of stealing 180 vehicles from different districts of the country and further investigations were underway to recover them,” said Amin. The IGP said ACLC is being restructured to make it more efficient and its past performance is being reviewed.

The three arrested car receivers were ring leaders of their respective gangs. They were identified as Moazam Ali, a resident of Garhi Hameed Gul, Charsada, Malik Shaukat Ali, a resident of Taro Jaba district Noweshera and Waseem Ullah, resident of Aza Khel, district Nowshera.

These car receivers have confessed to have links with car receivers of other districts and they used to contact owners of stolen vehicles with demand to pay them money to return their cars. They also admitted of tampering with vehicles’ and preparing bogus registration books.

The other suspects arrested by these ACLC teams were identified as Bakht Shah Zeb, Raja Azhar Mehmud, Abdul Rehman, Sajjad Nazeer, Fahad Naseem and Razim Khan.

IGP Bani Amin also handed over the keys of vehicles bearing the registration number of Islamabad to their actual owners while the police of
other districts had been informed about the vehicles stolen from their respective jurisdictions.

On the information provided by the arrested car thieves, police teams had been sent for the arrest of their accomplices and gang members. Help of local police of various districts had been sought to cordon off their respective areas that the car jackers used to transport stolen vehicles.

The IGP said policemen in plain clothes would be deployed in areas prone to car lifting and the strength of police officials will be enhanced at the entry and exit points.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2011.