Students targeted: ‘Political activists behind NED bus robbery’

Culprits are still at large, say police investigators.

KARACHI:

The robbers, who mugged a bus of NED University students in Nazimabad on Friday, belong to a political party, police investigations revealed on Saturday.

A senior police official, on the condition of anonymity, hinted that the suspects belong to a political party that dominates Pakhtun-dominated areas. “As it was a unique mugging incident, the law enforcement agencies cannot disclose the identification of the robbers until further investigations.”

Even though the real culprits are still at large, the police conducted several raids in Pirabad, Dir Colony, Umer Farooq Colony and Jalalabad in Nazimabad near Habib Bank Chowrangi. They questioned and apprehended several people but the main suspects are still on the loose, the officer said. Such robberies are taking place in the same localities and that is very alarming, he said.

District Central SSP Amir Farooqi claimed that the same group is involved in the robberies at two universities’ buses. In order to create fear, these criminal elements use the name of political parties but they have nothing do with any political party, he said. “We have identified them and they are Pashtu-speaking,” he said. “We arrested the same men several months ago.” To avoid similar incidents, SSP Farooqi added that the university administration and the police have planned to reroute the NED and Karachi University buses.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2013.