Police authorities on Monday handed over the investigation of 19-year-old Intizar Ahmed's murder in Karachi's Defence Housing Authority to police’s Counter-Terrorism Department, even as a government rights body also took notice of the case, officials said.
On January 14, Intizar was chased down and shot dead allegedly by nine undercover personnel of Anti-Car Lifting Cell after he had reportedly failed to stop his car at a picket.
Darakshan police have registered the murder case (FIR 16/2018) against nine officials of ACLC under Sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of Pakistan Penal Code. Out of the nine, eight ACLC officials have been arrested while the ninth suspect obtained bail from a court.
After Intizar's father, Ishtiaq Ahmed, expressed certain reservations over the investigation of the case, the Inspector General of Police Sindh A.D. Khowaja on Monday assigned the investigation of the case to CTD under the supervision of CTD DIG Amir Farooqi.
“Amir Farooqi, CTD DIG shall assign the investigation to an efficient and competent investigating officer and will ensure [an] impartial investigation, early detection and finalisation on merit,” said a notification issued by DIG Headquarters Munir Ahmed Shaikh.
In a written request to IG Sindh, Intizar's father had on Monday stated that Intizar’s death was not an accident but an act of target killing, and that the current investigation hasn’t made anything clear despite seven days having passed.
“It is my last hope that the case be transferred to either CTD or the crime branch,” he said.
Meanwhile, officials of the government-owned National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) met the teenager's father on Monday. They informed him that National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had directed the commission to probe the case for violation of human rights.
Intizar was a Malaysia-based student who had returned to Pakistan to spend holidays. He was in his car with a female friend when police in plainclothes had signalled him to stop. When he had failed to oblige, he was chased and gunned down. The friend had managed to escape unscathed.
