Eight ACLC cops indicted in Intezar murder case

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) at the central prison on Monday indicted eight Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) cops in the Intezar Ahmed murder case.

All defendants pleaded not guilty. The court summoned the witnesses to record their statements on May 26. Ahmed, 19, was killed when ACLC cops opened fire at his car on Khayaban-e-Ittehad in Defence Housing Authority on the night of January 13.

ACLC SHO Tariq Mehmood and policemen Ghulam Abbas, Azhar Ahsan, Fawad Khan, Danial, Bilal, Shahid and Tariq Rahim are standing trial for the gruesome murder. An interim charge sheet stated that no evidence against SSP Muqaddas Haider of the ACLC was found during the course of the investigation.

The police also failed to establish any link between SSP Haider and Madiha Kayani, who was in the car with Ahmed at the time of his murder, Mahrukh and Sohail Ahmed. According to the charge sheet, policemen Bilal and Daniyal who fired shots at Ahmed have been arrested, and the teenager’s death was caused by a bullet fired by Bilal.

Police informed the court that 28 witnesses had been made part of the investigation. In March, Deputy Inspector General Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Ameen Yousafzai dismissed the eight ACLC officials. The action was taken after the final police inquiry report signed by the DIG on the murder case was released.

The officials were dismissed because they instead of following Ahmed’s vehicle opened fire on it. The order further said that the officials used personal weapons along with official arms, while a private car was used instead of a police mobile.

The CCTV footage of the murder first surfaced on January 28 – two weeks after police allegedly shot him dead in Karachi. It showed the 19-year-old's car being intercepted by another one from the front, while a third vehicle and a motorcycle also arrive at the scene, stopping to the left of his car.

Apart from these, another motorbike stays at a little distance to the right side of Ahmed’s car. Shortly after Ahmed’s vehicle is signalled to go, it is shot at from the back, the footage revealed. The plain-clothes personnel riding the second motorbike and positioned to the right also fire shots at the vehicle. The video showed that none of the police personnel at the spot was in uniform.

Arshad Pappu case

An ATC rejected the bail pleas of former police officer Chand Khan Niazi and Lyari gangsterZakir Dada charged with murdering gangster Arshad Pappu, his brother Irafat and his friend Sher Khan.

Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Shahjahan, Uzair Baloch and his brother Zubair Baloch are also being tried in the triple murder case. Pappu, his younger friend and friend were killed in Lyari in March 2013.