January 27, 2008	Sunday	Muharram 17, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 26: Police are still clueless about the audacious escape of a head constable, who fled hours after his arrest from inside a police station in a raid conducted by the Orangi Town nazim for allegedly supplying narcotics, apparently in connivance with police high-ups, sources told Dawn.

The police sources said that head constable Arshad, who was arrested along with his two colleagues, constables Wajid and Sardar, with more than 40 kilogrammes of charas from the Mominabad police station, was still at large raising the question of his connections with the senior ranks.

“The Orangi Town nazim himself conducted the raid due to the growing complaints of the area people and some of the police officials, who were concerned about the increasing charas trade in the area under the umbrella of certain influential policemen,” said a source.

“The town administration caught him red-handed with 41 kilogrammes of charas he was keeping inside the police station. Arshad was arrested with two of his accomplices but managed to run away from the police station a few hours later,” the source confirmed.

“Though both of his colleagues were in police custody, the area police had so far failed to arrest the runaway head constable,” added the source. He said the episode turned mysterious when a top-ranking officer of the zone concerned attempted to bail Arshad out of the crisis hours after his arrest; the same connection was suspected behind the stalled investigation into the case.“We tried our best to purge the areas of such ills,” said Orangi Town Nazim Abdul Haq. “But unfortunately it didn’t work, and we can’t understand the reason behind his escape or why he’s still at large,” he added, but avoided commenting when asked about the possibility of a senior officer’s hand behind the head constable running a narcotics business in his town.

However, sources in the police came up with astonishing facts; apparently, a series of telephonic conversations between the head constable and a top ranking official after his arrest and escape from the police station was unearthed during the initial investigations.

“The cell phone record of the head constable, acquired after he escaped from Mominabad police station, suggested a series of incoming and outgoing calls on that senior officer’s number,” said the source.

He said the town administration and the area police were well aware of the nexus between Arshad and the senior officer but remained tight-lipped about it. This claim was largely confirmed when the area officer concerned was approached about the incident.

Whodunit?

“We don’t know how he got such a large quantity of charas inside the police station,” said Shahid Abbas, SHO Mominabad police station. “We arrested him and took him to the first floor for initial inquiry but he jumped from the window and escaped in the dark. We are looking for him and investigations are on,” he said, without elaborating on the reasons behind the negligence.

However, the sources maintained that Arshad’s escape and then the halt in the investigations reflected that the criminals’ tentacles had reached the senior offices of the law-enforcers.

“There are several parts of the town which are under such (charas) trade,” said Mr Haq, the Orangi Nazim. “This is not our area of regulation but still we are concerned about it.”

A senior police official commented that since the priorities of the authorities have changed to a large extent a few years ago, checks on the department and its senior officials have become a rarity.

“The authorities are well aware of the trend and criminals’ connections with the senior officers but deliberately ignore it most of the time due to other assignments amid political unrest and the threat of terrorism,” he said.