SP Aslam’s assassination: Police nominate TTP chief in FIR

Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid also named in the case.

KARACHI:

The police on Saturday nominated Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah and his spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid in the FIR for Thursday’s bombing that killed a senior police official.

SP Chaudhry Aslam Khan, the head of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), and his two guards were killed when a suspected suicide bomber – later identified as Naeemullah – drove an explosives-laden vehicle into his car on Lyrai Expressway, in Karachi’s Essa Nagri neighbourhood.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of CID Inspector Adil Malik under Sections 302, 324, 427/1, 103, 120-B and 34 of the Pakistan Panel code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Act, a police official told The Express Tribune.



“Section 120-B applies to a criminal conspiracy against the country’s sovereignty,” said the officer, adding that initial investigation revealed that the TTP had used a ‘human bomb’ in the attack.

On Saturday, senior police officials – including Sindh Police Chief Shahid Nadeem Balocha and CID AIG Iqbal Mehmood – visited the crime scene and examined the reports of forensic experts.

A highly credible source in the Sindh police said that a special team of the Military Intelligence (MI) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) were helping with the investigation.

“The FIA also collected the data of phone calls made from the Essa Nagri neighbourhood and members of Chaudhry Aslam’s team to find out the possible involvement of any TTP sympathiser in the police force,” he added.

He said the attack showed that there were black sheep in the police force, who had tipped off the militants about Chaudhry Aslam’s routes. “They [the militants] also knew that Chaudhry Aslam’s vehicle was not bomb-proof and was an easy target at the ramp of the Lyrai Expressway,” the officer added.

The police, however, didn’t name TTP’s Mehmond Agency chief Khalid Umer Khurassni, who had claimed responsibility for the attack and called it ‘revenge’ for the killing of TTP men by the CID in encounters over the last few months.

Talking to The Express Tribune, SP CID Mazhar Mishwani confirmed that last month the TTP spokesman had warned Chaudhry Aslam of dire consequences, if he did not stop pursuing TTP members.

He said the suspected suicide bomber also belonged to TTP’s Mehmond Agency chapter. He added that the police had found body parts of the attacker, including his fingers, and some parts of the vehicle used in the attack.

“However, the probe is ongoing and we are investigating the blood relatives of the suspected attacker” he added.

The suspect attacker, Naeemullah, was a resident of Qasba Colony, Karachi, and his father, Rafiullah, is a prayer leader at a mosque and has much influence in the area, sources said. Rafiullah and half a dozen family members and friends of the attacker have been detained for questioning.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2014.