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| October 30, 2001 | Tuesday | Shaba'an 12, 1422 |
‘Tough time’ for Bahawalpur police
MULTAN, Oct 29: The new governor reached Bahawalpur on Monday evening to have firsthand knowledge of the massacre of 15 Christian worshippers and a police constable.
Chairing a meeting of the administration, the governor expressed his annoyance that the culprits did their crime without any hindrance at any part of the execution of their bloody plan.
“Armed, they were riding on two motorbikes and a four-wheeler but none spotted them before and after the gory incident,” sources present in the meeting quoted Gen Maqbool as saying.
He directed the Zila Nazim and district police officer (DPO) to apprehend the culprits as early as possible. “The failure will be assumed as their incompetency.”
The police highups briefed the governor that two investigation teams had been constituted to bring the culprits to book. One would be headed by SP (CIA) Shahid Nizam Durrani and the other by DSP (city) Ghulam Farid Hiraj. Bahawalpur range DIG Mehr Qadir would supervise the investigation.
The two officers had recently led two inquiry teams to probe the murder of DSP Kauser Abbas, who was gunned down on Aug 27 last, but they could not find any clue to killers.
Sources told Dawn from Bahawalpur that police had so far arrested seven ‘suspects’ in different raids. Senior police officials were not available for comments. At the time of filing this report at 10pm, they were busy in a close-door meeting, even after the departure of the governor.
It is learnt that the police sleuths are mainly banking on two options — a sabotage bid by RAW or an act of retaliation of any of the pro-Taliban militant outfits active in this part of the country.
Though most of the government functionaries point fingers at RAW, a local Urdu daily has reportedly received a fax massage from a new entrant, ‘Lashkar-i-Umer’ which has owned the responsibility of the ‘Bahawalpur church carnage’ as ‘fightback’ against the American ‘crusade’.
Slain constable Saleem’s younger brother Faheem (21), who was playing cricket in a nearby ground when the terrorists opened fire, said when he reached the scene of carnage he found his brother seriously injured.
After his failure to contact police by phone, he tried to take his injured brother to a hospital on an auto rickshaw but he succumbed to his wounds.
Sources further revealed that though there had deputed a head constable and three constables to guard the church during the Sunday service, Saleem was on duty while another constable was resting in the tent at the time of the attack.
Meanwhile, traders and business community of Bahawalpur observed a complete shutterdown strike on Monday to mourn the tragic incident. People reportedly condemned the ‘callous attitude’ of Bahawalpur Victoria Hospital management that refused to send its ambulances to the troubled spot. Likewise, they said, the police acted too late.
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