February 09, 2007	Friday	Muharram 20, 1428

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LAHORE, Feb 8: Police continued raids to arrest the accused named in the murder of additional advocate-general Arif Bhinder and eight others, and claimed the arrest of two more accused.

But the relatives of the accused complained that the police were conducting raids at their residences for interrogation, creating an environment of harassment for their families.

Police sources said on Thursday that Malik Zahid’s maternal uncle Malik Riaz and a relative, Abbas, had been arrested but seven others were still at large.

Police have already arrested four unidentified accused, SP Malik Kamran and district forest officer Malik Noor who are being interrogated. Malik Nawaz is already in jail while Malik Latif is said to be out of the country.

Malik Zahid and his accomplices had gunned down Arif Bhinder, his brother and a nephew besides his police guards in an ambush on Waris Road on Jan 12.

A case was registered against 13 people, including Malik Zahid.

Relatives of Malik Latif complained that the police teams had been frequently conducting raids at residences of their 10 families for interrogation in Lahore, Gujranwala and Kamoke and even picked up their college-going children.

“We have been suffering at the hands of the police and even my two children were picked up for interrogation some 15 days ago from my Lahore residence and were kept at the Shahdara police station for a couple of days,” a close relative of Malik Latif said.

“The police questioned them about their relationship with Malik Latif and contacts with him,” he said.

He said at least 35 police officials led by a DSP raided his house at 3am some three days ago again, but it was locked.

He said CIA DSP Rai Zameer had picked his brother-in-law, Dr Tafseer Ashraf Khan, from Kamoke four days ago for interrogation and kept him at the Ichhra police station.

He claimed that his five sisters-in-law and three brothers-in-law had nothing to do with the murder, but the police had destroyed their family life.

“We have locked our houses and living separately to avoid police raids,” he said, alleging that the rival party had broken open their two houses and looted valuables.

CIA SP Masood Aziz confirmed that raids were being made on the houses of close and remote relatives of Malik Zahid and Malik Latif to capture the remaining accused. However, he said the number of raids had been decreased.

Another official of the investigation team said raids were not being made at the houses of Latif’s relatives, but at suspected places on a tip-off.

He also denied that the Bhinder group had robbed two houses of Latif’s relatives, saying they had received no complaint in this regard.