PSP officer Tahir Rai gets greenlight as new FIA chief

Official has previously served as Balochistan police chief and also headed Punjab CTD

ISLAMABAD:

The federal cabinet on Wednesday gave the nod to the appointment of Muhammad Tahir Rai, a Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) officer, as the new Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general in place of Dr Sanaullah Abbasi, who has been directed to report to the Establishment Division.

Newly appointed Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb informed the media about the development during a post-cabinet meeting news conference.

Rai has previously served as the Balochistan police chief and also headed the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).

He was removed from his post as the CTD chief after the Sahiwal incident in which four people, including three members of a family, were allegedly shot dead while three minor children were injured.

In October 2019, a special bench of an anti-terrorism court had acquitted Punjab CTD’s six officials, who were accused in the brutal murder of the four people.

They were facing charges of killing a couple, Khalil and Nabeela, their daughter Areeba, and another man named Zeeshan on January 19 that year.

Khalil, his wife and their four children were travelling with Zeeshan when the CTD personnel stopped their car near Sahiwal Toll Plaza on GT Road and opened fire, later claiming that they were targeting suspected terrorists.

Khalil and Nabeela’s other three minor children - Umair, Muniba and Jaziba – survived the shooting but with injuries.

Rai’s colleague, Rao Sardar, was given additional charge as his replacement.

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Rai was reinstated as the CTD additional IG after a joint investigation team formed to probe into the incident cleared him of any wrongdoing.

However, the JIT had claimed that the driver of the car, Zeeshan, was an active member of a terrorist outfit.
The JIT report stated that Zeeshan had contacts with the terrorists attached with Daesh among which many were proclaimed offenders of Red Book.

As per forensic report of mobile of Zeeshan, he had contacts with the leadership of Punjab Daesh (Khalid, alias Butt Sahib) which was operating from Afghanistan through an App (Threema).

He took directions from them to pass on to the other members of his group. The car which was used by him in the Sahiwal incident was actually owned by terrorist Adeel Hafeez.

Being a neighbour, Khalil told Zeeshan few days before the incident that he along with his family was to go to Burewala for a wedding.

Therefore, he should take them to the wedding in the car. Since, Zeeshan used this car for his organisational objectives, possibly in accordance with the tradition of his group to use a family as a cover, he agreed to take Khalil and his family to the other city.

The JIT report declared that the operation team of the department had fired unprovoked and recommended action against the CTD SSP Jawad Qamar and Regional Officer DSP Asif Kamal declaring them guilty of destroying the crime scene and committing administrative failures.