HARIPUR: The police had almost found the clue to the real assassins of slain journalist Bakhshish Elahi and would soon produce them before the media, an official said on Tuesday.
Addressing a newsconference at his office, DPO Shehzad Nadeem said some target killers allegedly hiredbyPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s woman member of district council Hina Khan were involved in theassassination of Bakhshish.
Based on theconfessional statement of accused Hina before the police under Section 161 of theCriminal Procedure Code, he said she was interrogated using modern gadgets and it proved that she decided to take extreme step of getting rid of Bakhshish Elahi.
The reasons behind the murder of Bakhsish, he said, was that the latter wanted her to join the lobby within PTI’s district councillors that wasallegedlyconspiring against District Nazim Adil Islam and wanted tothrow him out throughno confidence motion.
But sheliterally refusedto cheat the district nazim, which ultimately was not acceptable to Bakhshish who was also allegedly playing into the hands of that very lobby and finally started blackmailing her. The DPO said thatbothHina and Hanif were arrested on concrete evidence of having links with each other and the hired assassins, whose namedhe did not share with media.
He added that policewerevery close inapprehending the killers who were allegedly enjoying abetment of Hina.
He saidthe district nazim and 55 other journalists and Bakhsish’s friends wereinterrogatedin this case. He denied that Hanif Akhtar, another bureau chief of a local Urdu daily, was arrested on the basis of his professional work or any personal grudge but the real brotherof slain journalist hadnominated him with Hina Khan on the suspicion of being involved in Bakshish’s murder.