Man who murdered police officer on August 29 arrested

A man was arrested on Wednesday after a police officer had been martyred this past Sunday in what appeared to be a targeted attack in Karachi’s Orangi Town neighbourhood.

A press release issued by the Sindh Rangers spokesman said that a joint raid was conducted near Ijtimagah in the Manghopir locality on the basis of intelligence reports of the paramilitary force and the police.

The spokesman said Muhammad Asif, alias Bhaya, was arrested in the raid for his involvement in the murder of Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Akram Khan, who was posted at the investigation wing of the Manghopir police station, on August 29.

The press release read that the suspect was arrested with the help of the CCTV camera footage that showed the attack on the police officer.

The spokesman said that during the initial interrogation, the suspect had admitted to committing the murder, adding that he and his accomplice Muhammad Shaheen, alias Bihari, had been arrested several times before.

The press release stated that several cases were registered against both men at different police stations, while raids were under way for arresting the fugitive.

The spokesman said the detainee was later handed over to the police for further action, along with the weapon and ammunition found during the raid, adding that the motive behind the murder was yet to be ascertained.

The attack had happened in the early hours of Sunday, when two ASIs were waiting for their informer at an eatery in Gulshan-e-Bihar, which is located in Sector 16 of Orangi Town, within the limits of the Pakistan Bazaar police station.

FIR No. 75/21 had been registered under sections of murder and attempted murder as well as the Anti-Terrorism Act’s Section 7 at the Counter Terrorism Department police station on the complaint of ASI Syed Zafar Hussain, who was with ASI Khan at the time of the shooting.

Several cases of attacks on police officials in Karachi are still pending, including one such incident whose responsibility had been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, but law enforcers have failed to trace the whereabouts of the perpetrators despite the passage of a couple of years.

However, the CCTV camera footage of the Orangi eatery had taken law enforcers by surprise because in this brash attack the modus operandi of the assailant had been much different from previous such incidents.

The footage showed a heavyset man with a moustache and a beard, wearing a shalwar kameez as well as a scarf over his shoulder entering the eatery with a pistol in each hand.

After reaching near the policemen’s table, the suspect aimed both guns at ASI Khan and fired at him. After hitting the cop, the suspect also tried to shoot ASI Hussain, but despite firing multiple shots at him, the suspect missed his second target.

“I think that according to the CCTV camera footage, it was a targeted terrorist attack,” the CTD’s senior officer Raja Umer Khattab had told The News. “Two weapons were used simultaneously. It looks like terrorism. However, no militant organisation has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.”

The footage showed the suspect taking only a few seconds in carrying out his attack. After martyring ASI Khan, he also tried to attack ASI Hussain, but the cop was able to escape without a scratch. The suspect can later be seen fleeing from the crime scene along with his accomplice, who had stayed outside the eatery waiting for him on a motorbike.

ASI Khan died on the spot. The sudden attack had not given him or ASI Hussain a chance to retaliate. Khan had suffered two bullets, but the one he took to the head caused his death. His body had been taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Police had earlier said that they had not found ASI Khan investigating any case of terrorism, but he had been assigned 40 cases to investigate in the past six months and most of them were related to land grabbing. Police also said that both the ASIs were at the Orangi eatery to meet an informer. “We’re looking for him,” said a senior officer. “Maybe the policemen were trapped. We’re also conducting geo-fencing.”