Saddar dental clinic attack suspect handed over to police for questioning

The administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts on Saturday granted until October 25 police remand of the main suspect allegedly involved in last month’s attack on a dental clinic in Karachi’s Saddar area.

On September 28, Chinese-origin Pakistani doctor Dr Richard Hu and his wife Phen Teyin were injured, while their employee Ronald Raymond Chou was killed when an unidentified attacker opened fire at the clinic near Preedy Street.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) DIG Asif Ijaz Sheikh had on Friday announced the arrest of the suspect, identified as Waqar Khushk, said to be affiliated with the Sindhudesh Peoples Army (SPA).

On Saturday, the investigating officer produced the suspect before the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts and demanded his custody for interrogation. The IO stated that the CTD acting on intelligence information conducted a raid and arrested the suspect.

He said the man was associated with the separatist group that had claimed responsibility for the attack and was a sub-organisation of the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA).

The CTD official said the detained suspect was required to be grilled about the case and his accomplices.

The judge, accepting the IO’s request, granted the suspect’s police remand until October 25 and directed the investigating officer to produce him at the next date along with an investigation report.

An FIR has been registered under sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempt to murder) and other provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with Section 7 (punishment for terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

According to the FIR, Dr Richard, his wife and their cashier were busy with their work when the attacker pretending to be a customer entered the clinic. He was wearing jeans, a shirt and a red cap and wanted to have his teeth scaled, it said.

He sat five to six minutes in the waiting lounge and then headed towards the doctor’s cabin, where he took out a pistol and opened fire. Soon afterwards, he fled on a motorbike with his accomplice who was waiting outside.