Murder lands six ACLC officials in police custody

Six of the nine Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) officials accused of murdering a 28-year-old man in the upscale Defence locality surrendered themselves to the police on Sunday.

According to a high-ranking police officer, the ACLC officials claimed in their statement that they were at Bara Bukhari Lane No 5, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA Phase-VII on Saturday night when they asked Intizar Ahmed to stop his car.

They claimed that when the man tried to speed away, they fired at the vehicle’s tyres, but some of the bullets hit the occupant and he died on the spot.

The senior officer told The News that the police were investigating the case from two angles. He said that according to the victim’s father Ishtiaq Ahmed, the man had had a heated argument with two of his friends.

Police are trying to retrieve the victim’s call records to ascertain if he had had a conversation with his friends on Saturday night, added the officer.

He said the ACLC officials were initially held accountable for violating the standard operating procedure. “Firstly, why were they in plain-clothes, and secondly, why did they use their private weapons to target the tyres?”  

Three still at large

The senior officer said that a total of nine ACLC officials were accused of Intizar’s murder, expressing hope that the officials still at large – an inspector and two constables – would soon surrender or be arrested.

The News has found that the ACLC’s SHO Tariq Mehmood was leading the team of officials at the time of the incident. Besides him, Inspector Azhar, head constables Ghulam Abbas and Muhammad Shahid, and police constables Fawad and Ghulam Abbas have surrendered themselves to the police.  

Initial statement

Police had initially claimed that the man was shot dead by unidentified assailants. Darakhshan SHO Aurangzaib Khattak said two men on a motorbike had sprayed a car with bullets, adding that the police took the injured to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Friends or foes?

Clifton Division SP Dr Assad Malhi told The News that Intizar had returned to Karachi from Malaysia in November. When Malhi was asked if a political party’s flags had been found in the victim’s car, the officer said he was unaware of it.

The officer said Intizar’s father suspected that his friends might be involved in the murder, but even though an FIR was registered at the Darakhshan police station, the father had not nominated anyone in the complaint.

When Dr Malhi was asked why the father had not nominated anyone despite his suspicions, the officer said the police had recorded his statement and mentioned everything in the text that the police were told by the father.

However, according to some reports, Intizar was not travelling alone. The reports said that the man present with him had disappeared immediately after the incident.  

News conference

The victim’s father Ishtiaq Ahmed, sister as well as lawyer Muhammad Asif Khudai held a news conference to demand justice for Intizar. The father said Intizar had been studying in Malaysia and returned to Karachi two months ago.

The victim’s father rejected the claim that Intizar had any political affiliation. He told the media that his son had visited his friends before the incident, accusing two of them for the murder.

Ishtiaq’s lawyer Khudai dismissed media reports that a girl had been in the car with Intizar. “To our knowledge, there was no girl with him, and no such woman or girl has contacted us.”

He maintained that he had not been informed by the police about any ACLC official being arrested. Ishtiaq and his lawyer also rejected the claims of alcohol, government licence plates and political parties’ flags being recovered from the victim’s car.  

IGP, CM take notice

Sindh police chief IGP AD Khowaja has directed the relevant DIGP to immediately submit a detailed report on the inquiry into Ishtiaq’s murder allegedly at the hands of ACLC officials.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah summoned the Karachi police chief, the South DIGP and other relevant officials after the affected family’s news conference, according to a statement issued by the CM House.

Karachi police chief Addl IGP Mushtaq Mahar told the chief executive that the FIR had been registered in the presence of the father and that the police had arrested the ACLC officials.

The CM directed the police officers to discuss the evidence recovered with the family of the deceased as well as to conduct the investigation in a professional manner. He told them to arrest any police officer found to be involved in the incident. He also asked for daily reports to be submitted to him to keep him abreast of the investigation.