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Friday March 29, 2024

Man accused of killing cop in DHA flees country

By Salis bin Perwaiz & Faraz Khan
November 23, 2022

KARACHI: The man who had gunned down a police constable in Defence Housing Authority on Monday night managed to escape from the country, just a few hours after the incident.

Sindh Police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon has formed a team to probe the matter and decided to write to the federal government for issuance of red warrant for the suspect, identified as Khurram Nisar, who happens to be the son of a former deputy commissioner. Police Constable Abdul Rehman of the Shaheen Force, a special police force established to combat the rising incidents of street crime in Karachi, was on patrolling duty when he was shot dead by Khurram Nisar after the two exchanged hot words on Street 26, Phase V, DHA.

Talking to The News, Sindh IGP Memon said that he had decided to form an inquiry team of officials from the CTD and Special Branch, as killings of policemen and cases related to terrorism were investigated by the CTD.

To a query, Memon said he grilled the officials concerned over the negligence and lack of coordination with the immigration authorities, benefiting the accused who had fled to Sweden via an international airline in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The IGP said the investigators had detained four facilitators of Khurram Nisar, including the driver who had dropped him at the airport and those who provided a vehicle to him for the escape and were involved in dumping the weapon used in the killing of the cop.

He said a search for the weapon was underway and it was premature to confirm whether the weapon was licensed or not, and it could only be verified upon its recovery or the availability of a licence at the house of the suspect.

Officials said the airport authorities, including the immigration officials, had been requested for putting the name of Khurram Nisar on the Exit Control List (ECL). They added that the police had conveyed the message to the airport authorities before Khurram had fled Pakistan.

They said the authorities were informed at 4:30am while the boarding time of the accused was 4:11am. The police had the Pakistani passport copy while Nisar used the Swedish passport.

The shooting took place at around 12am and the police conducted raids the next three to four hours and arrested some suspects for gathering information about the suspect. The police had obtained all the information related to the accused, they said.

The officials said they had also obtained the travel history of the accused from the Federal Investigation Agency’s Integrated Border Management System, which also confirmed that Nisar possessed Sweden nationality.

They said that earlier a probe team was formed under the supervision of SSP South Syed Asad Raza and the members were SP Ali Mardan Khoso, Clifton SP Ahmed Faisal, Inspector Akbar Hussain and Clifton SHO Irfan Meo.

Meanwhile, Clifton police have registered an FIR under the Anti-Terrorism Act against the fleeing suspect on the complaint of fellow cop, namely Aminul Haq.

“We were posted in Shaheen Force in District South and were on motorcycle patrol in the remit of Darakhshan Police Station from 6pm to 2am,” stated Aminul Haq in the FIR, adding, “A car passed by us at 11:30pm near the 26th Street Signal, Phase V, Defence, on Khayaban-e-Shamsheer.”

“Abdul Rehman was riding a motorcycle and I was the pillion rider. We heard the screams of a woman from the car,” claimed Aminul Haq, adding they stopped the car near Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine and Constable Abdul Rehman pulled out and sat on the front seat of the car.

Meanwhile, the woman in the car got out and ran away. The car driver drove away the car with Abdul Rehman, he explained. The car stopped in Phase V Extension in Defence and later both the car driver and the constable got out of the car. “Then the car driver opened fire. Abdul Rehman also retaliated the fire but sustained a bullet injury and fell down on the road,” he said. The car driver escaped from there while Abdul Rehman succumbed to his injuries shortly after the incident. Later, Clifton police station’s mobile van reached and transported the slain cop’s body to hospital.”

A couple of video footages that went viral on the social media showed an altercation between the victim and suspect. The suspect can be seen opening fire during a bitter conversation. The policeman fell on the ground as soon as the suspect opened fire. It can also be heard in the videos that the slain cop was not showing his identification despite being asked by the suspect frequently.

The police cop suspected the accused was involved in a crime while the accused was doubtful about the identity of the policeman.

DIG Irfan Ali Baloch said the suspect left the car used in the incident at home and escaped in another car, adding a copy of the suspect’s passport has also been recovered. The suspect had come to Karachi from Sweden three weeks ago and had also a dual nationality. Police said the suspect’s brother is living in Faisalabad. He is also said to be a drug addict as drugs were also found from the room of the fleeing suspect. The police also obtained the travel documents of the suspect. According to District South SSP Asad Raza, the police have impounded the vehicle of the suspect used in the incident and also recovered the weapon used in the incident. The officer said that the police had found three to four more weapons from the vehicle parked in the house of the suspect.