FIA to submit report on Imran Farooq murder suspect extradition

Suspect's wife requested SHC to stop Khalid's extradition to the United Kingdom

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) authorities to submit a report regarding the arrest and likely extradition of Khalid Shamim, the key suspect in Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Imran Farooq's murder, to the United Kingdom.

A division bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, called for the report on the request of Beena Khalid, the wife of the suspect, who went to the court against the likely extradition of her husband to the UK, where the murder was committed.

During Thursday's proceedings, the petitioner told the court that the Pakistani authorities have arrested her husband in connection to murder of Imran Farooq.

She said, according to the news published in the media, a joint investigation team has also been constituted to interrogate the suspect, who is an accountant in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.

The Frontier Corps officials recently arrested Khalid Shamim and Mohsin Ali from the Pakistan-Afghan border and handed them over to the FIA for interrogation.

Currently, a five-member team of the London Metropolitan Police is visiting Islamabad to interrogate Shamim, Ali and Moazzam Ali Khan in relation to the murder.

FIA inspector Inaam Ghani, who was present at the court, requested the court grant him two days to file a report. The request was allowed and the hearing was adjourned till July 6.

Dr Imran Farooq was stabbed to death near his Edgware residence on September 16, 2010.

Shamim went missing from Karachi's Malir locality on October 6, 2011, according to his wife, who has accused law enforcement agencies of illegally detaining him ever since.

She claimed that her husband's life was in danger and pleaded the court restrain the authorities concerned from shifting him outside the country for interrogation.

IO's murder

Earlier, the police authorities had informed the court that the missing person frequently travelled abroad from November 2005 till September 2010.

At a previous hearing, the sub-divisional police officer of SITE filed a report dated June 18 to the court, stating that the police officer investigating the missing person's case had been assassinated.

The report stated that the police's deputy superintendent, Abdul Majeed Abbasi, who was appointed as the investigation officer of the missing person's case, was assassinated on June 9. A letter had been sent to the Karachi AIG to transfer the investigation of the case to the relevant DSP/SDPO Saudabad, the report stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2015.