ISLAMABAD: An intelligence agency assisted the capital police to track down and arrest four people allegedly involved in the killing of two policemen in Tarnol last month.

ASI Mohammad Mohsin Zafar and head constable Sajid Ahmed were shot dead at a checkpoint established at Chungi No. 26 on May 26.

After initial investigation, the capital police registered terrorism case against the attackers. Later, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was also constituted to identify and arrest the culprits.

Officers close to the investigation told Dawn that an intelligence agency assisted the capital police to track down the culprits. The police succeeded in identifying the culprits during interrogation of a suspect arrested by the Taxila police.

An encounter took place between the Taxila police and a gang of armed men a few weeks ago. The Taxila police obtained the photo of one of the suspects captured by a camera installed at the Taxila toll plaza while escaping.

Intelligence agency helped police track down suspects, police officers says

The Taxila police arrested the suspect along with his father a week ago. The capital police interrogated the suspect who disclosed that he along with four others were involved in the killing of the two policemen in Islamabad.

He also disclosed the identification of his four accomplices involved in the killing. Later, the details of the suspects were shared with the intelligence agency which tracked them.

During preliminary investigation, the suspects confessed to killing the policemen, said the officers. The suspect told the investigators that on May 26 the five suspects, including two Afghan nationals, were going to Tarnol on separate motorcycles to sell 25 snatched mobile phones.

Police officials standing at the halting point signaled them to stop when they reached Chungi No. 26, the officers quoted the suspects as saying. The suspects said they tried to escape but all of a sudden one of their motorcycles slipped.

ASI Zafar then overpowered one of the suspects who had fallen on the road along with one of his accomplices, which led to a scuffle between them. In the meantime, the other armed men opened fire on the ASI and the constable who was standing on a greenbelt and escaped.

The two Afghans were also involved in the killing of a policeman during a robbery at a house in I-8 in 2019, they said, adding that three persons were arrested in connection with the I-8 robbery, including the elder brother of the Afghans, who were now in Adiala jail.

They also confessed to their involvement in a number of robberies in Rawalpindi and Islamabad besides some encounters with the police of the two cities.

The Afghans told the investigators that they killed the police officials to avenge the murder of their father who was shot dead by the police in Golra in 2005.

After an interrogation, the five suspects were handed over to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), according to the officials.

However, according to a press release on Friday, the police and the CTD conducted a joint operation in Dhoke Qureshian in Golra early on Friday and nabbed two Afghan nationals allegedly involved in the killing of the two policemen on May 26.

“During the operation, some persons started firing at police teams following which policemen promptly responded and succeeded to arrest two persons while their two other accomplices managed to escape under cover of firing and taking advantage of darkness.”

The arrested suspects were identified as Sajjad alias Chocho and Nur Mohammad alias Nurme.

IGP Mohammad Aamir Zulfiqar Khan and DIG (operations) Waqaruddin Syed appreciated the overall performance of the police teams.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2020