Delayed response: Verify Haqqani kin’s killing, police told

Minister asks how Nasiruddin lived undetected near capital.

ISLAMABAD:

After a full week, the interior ministry finally woke up to the killing of Nasiruddin Haqqani, a key member of the Haqqani Network, by gunmen near the federal capital.

“The interior minister has directed the Islamabad police to submit a detailed report on the incident,” an interior ministry official told The Express Tribune on Saturday.

A source in the Islamabad City Police Office confirmed that the interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar, has ordered the police to verify whether Nasiruddin was killed in the incident.

Nasiruddin Haqqani, the chief fundraiser and son of the Haqqani Network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, was reportedly shot dead outside a naan shop in Bhara Kahu, on the outskirts of Islamabad, on November 10.



The police, however, didn’t confirm the identity of the slain man, despite being stationed roughly 200 metres from the crime scene. Quoting witnesses, police sources said Nasiruddin’s driver removed the body from the site and claimed they never got the chance to see it. Nasiruddin’s death was later confirmed by tribal sources in his hometown Miramshah in North Waziristan.

In their initial report, local police officials made no mention of Nasiruddin. They only included the name of a baker wounded by gunfire in their findings. Later on, based on eyewitness testimony, the police officials mentioned an ‘unknown person who sustained injuries’.

It was after the incident was picked up by foreign media that the interior minister ordered the police to find out who died in the incident.

“If it indeed was Nasiruddin Haqqani [who died in the shooting], then how did he manage to live in Islamabad without the knowledge of the police?” Chaudhry Nisar has asked the Islamabad police chief, according to the interior ministry official.

“The minister has also asked the police to explain why it reached the crime scene so late and who took away Nasiruddin’s presumed body,” the official added. Quoting witnesses, an official of the Bhara Kahu police said Nasiruddin was gunned down when he stepped out of his vehicle near the naan shop.

The guards later moved his body to his Shahpur residence, a short distance from the crime scene, the official said. From there, it was taken to Miramshah for burial.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2013.