The Sindh Rangers and police claimed on Wednesday to have arrested the target killer who shot dead an ASI posted at Manghopir Police Station last week.
According to a spokesperson for the paramilitary force, Muhammad Asif alias Bhaiyya was arrested in an intelligence-based operation after he was identified as the man opening indiscriminate fire at the slain investigation officer.
The arrested suspect confessed to killing ASI Akram Khan in a targeted attack, said the spokesperson.
The Rangers handed over the suspect to the police while raids were underway to arrest his accomplice.
According to Counter Terrorism Department DSP Chaudhry Safdar, Asif and his accomplice, Muhammad Shaheen alias Bihari, have been arrested several times and they believed ASI Khan was behind their arrests.
DSP Safdar said Asif and Shaheen were planning a crime on August 28 when they saw the two investigation officers and started following them. They waited till both the ASIs entered the hotel and opened fire at them killing ASI Khan while ASI Zafar Ali Shah managed to escape.
ASI Khan was shot dead at a hotel in Gulshan-e-Bihar's main market in Orangi Town, where he had a meeting in connection with a robbery he and his partner, ASI Zafar Ali Shah, were investigating.
In the complaint lodged at Pakistan Bazar Police Station on August 29, as quoted in the FIR, ASI Shah said that he and the deceased were investigating a robbery case and had gone to the hotel to meet an informant. "All of a sudden, a man holding pistols in both hands entered the hotel. The suspect had a light beard and long hair and was clad in shalwar kameez. He opened fire at us. I saved my life by running away."
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ASI Shah said the suspect chased them and then sped away on a motorcycle with an accomplice, firing shots as he went. "The suspect also shot at me but I was miraculously saved. No one except us was in the hotel at the time of the incident."
Pakistan Bazar DSP Jaffar Baloch said the police found 10 bullet casings of a 30-bore pistol, which were sent for ballistic testing. He added that the case was lodged against two unidentified suspects under Sections 302 [pertaining to murder] and 324 [attempt to murder] read with 34 [acts committed by more than one person with a common attention] of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section VII of the Anti-Terrorism Act after recording ASI Shah's statement and forwarded to the Counter Terrorism Department.
The DSP told The Express Tribune that slain ASI Khan hailed from Mansehra. He was 45-years-old and a father to six children. He was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital with four gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen and was declared dead on arrival, said the DSP.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2021.
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