ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday ordered investigation into the assassination of a senior member of Tehrik-i-Taliban Haqqani group in Islamabad and sought a report in this regard, sources in the interior ministry told Dawn.

He asked the police to investigate whether the victim was — Naseeruddin Haqqani — a senior member of the Haqqani group, operating in Afghanistan and whether he was killed by Afghan intelligence agency operatives.

Besides, the minister asked the police to investigate that who took away the body of the victim from the spot.

The minister also raised the question that how the victim had been residing in the capital for the last four years without the knowledge of the authorities’ concerned, including the police.

An officer of the interior ministry, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the minister had sought the report. “There is no official confirmation of the victim and the attackers yet,” he added.

Inspector General of police when contacted neither denied, nor confirmed that police had received the directives of the minister. Four days have passed but there have been no official words from the police or any other government authority regarding the reported killing of a senior member of Tehrik-i-Taliban (Haqqani group) in a shooting incident in the outskirts of Islamabad on Sunday.

Though the local and international media, quoting unnamed official sources, have been confirming the killing of Taliban leader Naseeruddin Haqqani, the police claim they do not know the identity and the whereabouts of the ‘other unknown person’ injured in the attack along with a baker, and do not even know whether the man is still alive.

The sources close to the investigation said that the operation of the attackers was so swift that the people who were providing security to Haqqani from a distance could not get time to retaliate.

However, they shifted the body to his house at Shahpur in Bhar Kahu, they added.— Munawer Azeem