ISLAMABAD: Three persons allegedly involved in the killing of an owner of a housing society and his associate and injuring others were taken into custody by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) at the Karachi Airport shortly after their arrival from UAE.

The three persons were among the eight accused nominated in the cases registered over the killing of Mirza Naveed of Islamabad Model Town near Industrial Area police station on Friday and injuring Rashid Mehmood and Ansar Maqsood at Bukhari Chowk on Saturday.

The names of all the accused were put in the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL) on the directives of Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) Afzaal Ahmed Kausar, they said, adding that during immigration process the name of three persons were spotted in the list and as a result they were taken into custody.

Later, the capital police were approached by FIA and informed about the three accused wanted to them in connections with the murder, the sources said.

A police team of capital left for Karachi to bring the accused to Islamabad for further legal proceedings, including interrogations.

A police officer told Dawn on condition of anonymity that all the three persons are father, brother and uncle of Gulbaz who was murdered in a clash over land between villagers of Malot and a group of the housing society on Jan 28, he added The police believed that the killing of owner and his associates was an act of revenge for the murder of Gulbaz, the officer said, adding that it is also believed that hired assassins conducted the attacks on Sept 24 and 25 and the three persons left for UAE from Pakistan on Sept 22 to make a perfect alibi to prove their innocence, he added.

The officer further said that the three other accused nominated in the cases are still hiding in Karachi.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2021