Key suspect may have fled to UAE, SHC told

Karachi
The key suspect in the Parveen Rahman murder case, Rahim Sawati, was reported to have fled abroad; the interrogators of the case informed the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday.
According to a report presented by DIG West, the suspect’s son Imran, taken into custody to locate his father’s whereabouts, had disclosed that his father had gone to the UAE.
However, the information was not confirmed by the Federal Investigation Agency’s immigration department.
A two member bench of the SC head by Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, while hearing a petition seeking formation of a judicial commission to probe the case, sought a report over the progress made so far to arrest the killers.
The DIG’s report maintained the suspect originally hailed from Malakand Agency, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, for which the personal and physical profile of the accused had been shared with DIG Malakand to affect his arrest through the local police.
However, the regional police officer (RPO) of Malakand, through a letter on August 7 informed that the local police had been able to identify a man named Said Rehman, son of Said Habib, in accordance with the information shared with them.
Rehman was stated to have links with the Taliban and was a resident of Kabal, Swat. The letter had further stated that Rehman’s family had migrated to some unknown place, during the Swat operation, whereas his house was demolished by the security forces. His family members were also claimed of being involved in terrorist activities. An action against them was vowed to be taken as and when they were reported in the area.
The report also stated that RPO Malakand was also being approached to distinguish whether Said Rehman and Mohammad Rahim Sawati were the same people. With reference to raids conducted in Karachi, the report stated that two teams headed by SDPO Manghopir and SHO Peerabad had so far arrested 13 people, but the main culprit could not be traced.
Those arrested were identified as Bilal alias Tension, Ahmed Ali alias Pappu, Amjad Afridi, Ayaz and Shaldad, Mehmood Ahmed alias Madni, Muhammad Yousuf Khan, Bilal, Barkat, Kashif, Khandan Khan, Ajab Khan and Wajid Hussain alias Sheena.
The DIG West in his report further maintained that Swati was being monitored with the assistance of intelligence agencies through a phone number allegedly used by Sawati. The agencies would immediately be reported of his whereabouts whenever the suspect would activate the SIM, maintained the report. The hearing also discussed nominating SSP Operation district (West) as the Investigation Officer as the previously nominated IO, SSP Pir Mohammad Shah, had been transferred to district Khairpur.