Internal affairs: BDU chief ‘dragged’ into land-grabbing allegations
Says driver at the scene of Saturday’s shoot-out worked for another police dept.
PESHAWAR:
The bomb disposal unit’s AIG Shafqat Malik dismissed rumours that his driver was injured in a land-grabbing attempt on Warsak Road on Saturday.
“Farman, a resident of Muhammadzai was not my driver,” Malik told The Express Tribune. Farman was later shot dead at Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).
“He was working as a driver with the canine unit which was separated from the BDU six months ago by the IGP and placed under its own director who answers to the special branch AIG,” said Malik.
On Saturday afternoon, a shoot-out occurred at Warsak Road between two groups at a jirga. Three men, including Farman, and their apparent rivals, Latif and Sher Alam, got into a fight in which the latter two were killed and the driver was injured. Later, Latif’s brother allegedly shot Farman at LRH.
The rivals had claimed the driver came in an official vehicle at the behest of Malik. While Farman was using an official vehicle, he was not under the command of the BDU, said the BDU head.
A Mathra police official told The Express Tribune the vehicle has been impounded at the station and the allegations and incident are under investigation. However, he said the two men arrested from LRH had no information about Malik. “We tried to investigate the matter but they told us Farman was their friend and together, they planned the murder of their rivals with whom they had a property dispute,” said the official.
He added, “Any driver can take a vehicle from the office as it was a Saturday—an official weekend—and there would be no one in to question it.”
These are just rumours; Farman was not Malik’s driver, said another police official. “We have found no reason to believe that a driver would be sent to take over a piece of land.”
He added, “Direct involvement is out of the question.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2014.
The bomb disposal unit’s AIG Shafqat Malik dismissed rumours that his driver was injured in a land-grabbing attempt on Warsak Road on Saturday.
“Farman, a resident of Muhammadzai was not my driver,” Malik told The Express Tribune. Farman was later shot dead at Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).
“He was working as a driver with the canine unit which was separated from the BDU six months ago by the IGP and placed under its own director who answers to the special branch AIG,” said Malik.
On Saturday afternoon, a shoot-out occurred at Warsak Road between two groups at a jirga. Three men, including Farman, and their apparent rivals, Latif and Sher Alam, got into a fight in which the latter two were killed and the driver was injured. Later, Latif’s brother allegedly shot Farman at LRH.
The rivals had claimed the driver came in an official vehicle at the behest of Malik. While Farman was using an official vehicle, he was not under the command of the BDU, said the BDU head.
A Mathra police official told The Express Tribune the vehicle has been impounded at the station and the allegations and incident are under investigation. However, he said the two men arrested from LRH had no information about Malik. “We tried to investigate the matter but they told us Farman was their friend and together, they planned the murder of their rivals with whom they had a property dispute,” said the official.
He added, “Any driver can take a vehicle from the office as it was a Saturday—an official weekend—and there would be no one in to question it.”
These are just rumours; Farman was not Malik’s driver, said another police official. “We have found no reason to believe that a driver would be sent to take over a piece of land.”
He added, “Direct involvement is out of the question.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2014.