Public declaration: After 3 ASWJ arrests, group gunning for CID SSP Chaudhry Aslam

ASWJ said that the CID had booked 3 of their men in fake cases and had picked them up from the Super Highway.

KARACHI:

One of the best compliments for a police officer is a threat.

And while there are many people across Karachi who are upset with the terrorist-fighting SSP Chaudhry Aslam, the Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ) became the first group to publicly declare that it would start a campaign against the Crime Investigation Department (CID) officer.

At a press conference on Friday, ASWJ’s information secretary Maulana Sikandar Shah said that the three ASWJ workers presented before the media at the CID’s Garden office on Wednesday were not involved in any crimes. He said that the CID had booked them in fake cases and had picked them up from the Super Highway.

The men were picked up in connection with the killings of three Shia lawyers that put immense pressure on the police to solve the cases. Now the ASWJ says that their men were just scapegoats. “SSP Aslam Khan has done his job and reduced the pressure put on him after the murder of Shia leader Askari Raza,” Shah said. “He should be ashamed of himself.”

He told the media that there was evidence to show that the ASWJ workers were innocent. “They were present at ASWJ’s legal adviser Ali Mama’s funeral and protest.”

Shah added that since last year, 10 of their men who dealt with legal matters were gunned down in Karachi and the authorities had promised to arrest the suspects. None of them have been arrested so far, he said.

He added that the ASWJ’s central leadership had decided to approach the apex court to help their associates and register a case against SSP Aslam Khan for booking the ASWJ workers in a fake case.

The ASWJ was formerly known as the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba. SSP Aslam’s house was attacked by a bomb a few months ago.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2012.