TTP hit men: Breakthrough in MPA murder case

Police nab suspects who confess to killing PTI lawmaker Farid Khan.

ISLAMABAD: The capital police landed a big catch when they picked up two men from an Afghan settlement at the city’s outskirts on suspicions of links with terrorists.

The two men identified as Asifullah and Abidullah, both residents of Hangu, turned out to be hit men linked with Taliban and wanted in 37 cases of terrorism, murder and kidnapping for ransom.

The suspects, during interrogation, confessed to killing Farid Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly from Hangu, on June 3, 2013.

Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) sleuths arrested the suspects from a hideout in Tarnol on a tip-off. “They had taken refuge in the Afghan slums to evade arrest by Hangu police,” said a senior CIA officer.

The suspects would be handed over to Hangu police on Wednesday for further investigations in the murder of the PTI MPA who was ambushed in Hangu earlier this month.



Both suspects were members of local Hangu militant group Jamiat-e-Islami linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The suspects told the police that they were commissioned to murder Khan by another local militant commander Nabi Mullah Hanfi.

Hanfi assigned a local militant commander Kakay the task to kill Farid Khan. Kakay, who runs a militant centre in Kandoo Kili area of Hangu, further outsourced the task to Asifullah and his accomplices Abidullah, Qadir, Hafeez, Jahanzeb and Deeng to kill Farid Khan.

“MPA Khan wanted to establish the writ of the government in the area and was against militancy which is why Hanfi decided to get rid of him,” the suspect told the CIA interrogators. A local Hangu resident Kareem Khan carried out reconnaissance of the MPA’s movement and informed the militants.

Asif, Abid and his accomplices ambushed and killed Khan in Hangu on June 3.

A senior CIA officer told The Express Tribune that the arrested suspects were hardcore militants. They joined Mullah Nabi’s group in 2008.

Asifullah was made local commander of village Speen Khawari, Kando Kalay and Afghan Refugee Camp where he established a militant centre.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2013.