Drag race: FIA to nab ‘main suspect’ from Dubai

Agency joins hand with officials in UAE to arrest realtor’s son.

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday sought help of the security officials of United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the arrest of the real estate tycoon Malik Riaz’s son.

Ali Riaz was believed to have fled to Dubai and did not return after he was nominated in a criminal case for illegally organising and allowing a drag car race in Bahria Town.

Five people, including two children, were killed when one of the drivers, Majid Naeem, lost control over his car and ran over the bystanders.

Officials said that the FIA Director General Wasim Ahmad had sought help from Interpol in Dubai through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to arrest Ali Riaz.

“FIA requested the Interpol to help arrest Ali Riaz as soon as possible because the investigations cannot be concluded without the main suspect,” said an official of the FIA, on condition of anonymity.

The FIA investigations team is working with Punjab Police to arrest all of the four primary suspects in the case, after the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) took a suo motu notice of the incident.

In the hearing of the suo motu case, a three-member bench of the SC directed the FIA to use its full authority to nab the suspects and resist all influences in this regard. The court had also directed that the inquiry of the case be referred to an experienced and high-ranking police official rather than a sub-inspector.

A special team of FIA along with the officials of Rawalpindi Police was likely to leave for Dubai to arrest Ali Riaz, the FIA official added.

The court had also directed the trial court to expedite the process and complete the hearing in the case as quickly as possible.

Majid Naeem, driver of the car that had run over the spectators, was earlier arrested by the Rawalpindi police after he withdrew his interim bail application.

However Sheikh Atif bin Arif, the chief organiser of the drag race is still at large after his application for an extension in the interim bail was rejected by the court. Waleed Aman, the co-organiser of the event, is out on interim bail till December 24 (today).

The Rawalpindi police had earlier maintained that the organisers of the car race were denied the permission to hold the race in the jurisdiction of the Rawalpindi city. The police, however, added that the organisers had produced a No Objection Certificate (NOC) allegedly issued by certain police high-ups.

In the NOC, the police refused to take “responsibility in case of any untoward incident”.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2010.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction.

Correction: Dec 31st 2010

Due to an error, an earlier version of this article referred to the driver Majid Naeem as Majid Naeem Supra. The error has been corrected.