Delivering justice: Police take affirmative action to arrest MQM MPA’s killers

Provincial government constitutes Joint Investigation Team entrusted with the task of probing the incident.

KARACHI:

In a bid to apprehend the culprits behind the murders of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) legislator, Sajid Qureshi and his son, Waqas, the provincial government has constituted a Joint Investigation Team entrusted with the task  of probing the incident.

In addition to this, police investigators, realising the ‘challenging nature of the case’, have decided to seek the help of the citizens to solve it.

Sajid Qureshi and Waqas were shot dead by armed men in an act of target killing when they were returning home after offering Friday prayers at Masjid-e-Huda located near his house in North Nazimabad. Police have registered a case, FIR No. 158/13 under Sections 302/34 and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) against three unidentified persons on the complaint of the former MPA’s brother, Zahid Qureshi, who is also a former MPA of the MQM.

Investigators have yet to trace the perpetrators behind the incident. They related, however, that they were looking at various scenarios and trying to find out the right angle through which to address the case. “The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the incident but we have yet to decide the right angle to investigate the case,” said the Investigations SP Javed Iqbal Bhatti, while talking to The Express Tribune. “We have also written a letter to our higher authorities to seek citizens’ help by announcing an award of Rs1 million for anyone who helps the investigators in apprehending the culprits.”

Shortly after the incident, police officials believed that only one culprit was responsible behind the attack.  The ballistic report, however, suggested that three pistols were used in the killings of the MPA and his son. The police claimed they had prepared a sketch of one of the three suspects and also sent a slipper, presumably of one of three suspects found near from the crime scene, for DNA testing to trace his identity. They have also asked the cellular phone companies for geo-fencing, they added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2013.