Chilas search operation: Police arrests two more suspects in murder case

Six people taken into custody so far for the killing of three security officials.

GILGIT: Police on Wednesday arrested two more key suspects for the killing of three security officials in Chilas town of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) in August.

The suspects taken into custody are Liaqat and Habibur Rehman, said a senior police official Jehangir Khan

He added Liaqat was arrested from Thak Nullah during a raid, while the second suspect Habibur Rehman was arrested from Lahore with the aid of Lahore police.

“The arrest of these suspects was made possible because of the information shared by intelligence agencies,” said Khan.



The men had been wanted in the murders of former superintendent police Hilal Ahmed, Colonel Ghulam Mustafa and Captain Ashfaq Aziz, who were investigating the killings of 10 foreign tourists and their local guide at a Nanga Parbat base camp in June.

Earlier on September 12, police arrested another key suspect, Hameedullah, from a house in Kohistan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa which shares a border with G-B’s Diamer valley.

On September 5, Diamer police claimed to have arrested the alleged mastermind behind the Nanga Parbat shooting. Qaribullah alias Hassan and his accomplices Mushtaq alias Commander Ghazi and Mohammad Nabi alias Qari Hasnain were nabbed from a house in Thak valley of Chilas town, about 130 kilometres from Gilgit.

The total number of people arrested during the on-going search operation in the valley has now reached six. Following the killings of the security officers, police along with security forces had launched a large-scale search operation in Chilas in search of militants responsible for the tragic Nanga Parbat incident and the deaths of the investigation officers.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2013.