Journalist Wali Khan Babar’s ‘killer’ arrested

KARACHI: The alleged killer of journalist Wali Khan Babar was arrested during a joint operation on Monday, Geo News reported.

Babar was gunned down in Liaquatabad area of Karachi on January 13, 2011, when he was returning home from his Geo News office. Kamran alias Zeeshan Shani was arrested during a joint operation, said Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon, adding Shani had opened fire on Babar. Memon said till 2015, four accused received life imprisonment in the case and another suspect Faisal Mota was arrested.

“Shani was still at large and kept changing his hideouts and finally this morning, on the intelligence-based information by a federal agency, our special investigation unit apprehended him with weapons,” said the city police chief.

According to Memon, Shani lived in several areas for five years and then shifted to Gulshan-e-Maymar area, where he was living with his family. “The suspect has informed police about four murder cases so far and we will seek more information from him.”

He said initially there were eight accused and among them one was identified as Liaquat Ali, who was killed in an encounter. Memon said several witnesses were murdered, including Rajab Bengali, who was killed in 2011. He gave example of another “star” witness Haider Ali, on whose testimony the conviction took place. Ali was murdered in 2012. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, “Babar was shot shortly after his story on gang violence aired on the country’s most widely watched broadcaster, Geo TV.”

Four witnesses for the case were killed during the years 2011-2012, while advocate Naimat Ali Randhawa was murdered in September 2013 at the time when he was acting as special public prosecutor in the case.