IBA registrar murder attempt: Police arrest suspects, main accused on the run

Many suspects arrested, Ishaq Mahar yet to be caught.

SUKKUR: A day after the attempted murder of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Sukkur registrar Zahid Hussain Khand, the police arrested suspects from different places for their alleged involvement in the attack.

Officials said the Abad police raided many places on Thursday and arrested suspects, but the nominated accused, Ishaq Mahar, has yet to be caught.

Abad SI Anees Ahmed Shaikh has, however, denied any arrests and said that some employees of MPA Sheheryar Mahar were brought in for investigations and were later released. He said the key accused person in the case, Ishaq Mahar, one of the MPA’s employees, is still absconding and they are trying to find him.

The IBA registrar was critically injured after men shot him near the institute on Airport Road Wednesday morning.

Khand was first taken to a private hospital in Sukkur, but the doctors referred him to Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi. According to IBA officials, Khand was operated on Thursday morning and his condition is stable.

Political revenge: PML-Q

The government is exacting “political revenge” by nominating Pakistan Muslim League-Q MPA Sheheryar Mahar in a case registered about the attack on the IBA registrar, said a political statement on Thursday.

It was issued by the provincial office bearers of the party, Naeem Adil Sheikh, Ruknuddin Mirani, Tariq Syed, Khan Bahadur Shar, Farida Leghari and Malik Abdul Aziz. They said Mahar had been out of the country for days and in his absence, the government had nominated him in a “fake” case. They also condemned the “conspiracy” hatched by the government to take political revenge. They demanded the immediate withdrawal of the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2010.