Dasti arrested in oil-tanker robbery case

MULTAN: The Muzaffargarh police arrested former Member National Assembly (MNA) Jamshed Dasti from Multan on Thursday in an oil-tanker robbery case.

Dasti was passing by the Gilani House on Ghous-ul-Azam Road in an attempt to reach the high court for seeking pre-arrest bail when the police intercepted and arrested him. Police also nominated Dasti’s two former police gunmen and five others in the FIR, registered with Qureshi Police Station on Sunday last.

The police station registered the FIR against Jamshed Dasti over looting of 40,000 litres of carbon diesel worth Rs4.3 million.

The complainant, Abdul Qadir, a resident of Quetta, had lodged his complaint with Qureshi Police Station and nominated eight persons including Jamshed Dasti. The complainant stated that the accused riding a police vehicle stopped his oil-tanker carrying 40,000 carbon diesel worth Rs4.3 million when he reached Muzaffargarh district from Quetta on Dec 24 last. Four accused were wearing Elite Police uniform and armed with weapons, who forcibly stopped the vehicle.

The accused held the oil-tanker crew hostage at gunpoint and took over the control of the vehicle. They drove it to undisclosed location and kept the crew blind-folded and hostage for two days.

Later on, when they got their vehicle back, they found it empty. When an Elite Forces official was arrested by the police, he revealed during investigation that Dasti and his men were also involved in the robbery.

The police nominated Jamshed Dasti, Furrakh Shahzad, Nasir Lashari, Riaz Chandia, Abid Maulana, Muhammad Ajmal Kalro, Muhammad Azam Kharrak and Akbar Muhajar. The police registered a case against Dasti and others under sections 395, 365, 170 and 171 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).