KARACHI: A former police inspector, who was facing trial in a 2013 case pertaining to the murder of Lyari gangster Arshad Pappu, his brother and their aide, and his relative were shot dead in a targeted attack in the Soldier Bazaar area on Saturday, officials said.

They said that 55-year-old Javed Baloch was returning home on a motorbike along with his 65-year-old relative Muhammad Mussadiq from a court in the judicial complex inside Karachi central prison. When they reached Soldier Bazaar No 2 near a fuel station — a crowded place in the neighbourhood — during first half of the day, four armed men on two motorbikes intercepted them.

“Two of the armed men got off the motorbikes and fired multiple shots and rode away along with their aides,” said an official at the Soldier Bazaar police station.

“The two suffered serious bullet wounds and were shifted to the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi where they were pronounced dead. Both victims were residents of Lyari and returning from a court after a hearing pertaining to a case related to Lyari gang warfare,” the official said.

He said the assailants used 9mm pistols and police found 19 spent bullet casings from the scene of crime.

Javed Baloch was facing trial along with Uzair Baloch before an ATC

As the police were initially not sure about the motive and people behind the incident, the identification of the victims helped connecting the dots. A spokesperson for the Karachi police said in a statement that Javed Baloch was a former policeman.

Baloch was posted as SHOs of Baghdadi and Chakiwara police stations between 2008 and 2013 when Lyari was witnessing a worst gang warfare.

“His role as a police officer posted in Lyari was quite dubious,” said SSP-East Qamar Raza Jiskani while talking to reporters at the crime scene.

“He was suspended and even facing a criminal case in one of the incidents related to Lyari gang warfare. This particular targeted attack seemed to be linked with his past role and history while being in service. However, the investigations are open and we are looking into the incident from all possible angles,” he said.

When asked whether his name was included in the much talked about joint interrogation team (JIT) report as one of the suspects who had facilitated and helped killing of Arshad Pappu while serving as the SHO of Chakiwara police station, the SSP said he was not sure and would further check the facts in this regard.

However, judicial sources said Javed Baloch along with chief of outlawed Peoples Amn Committee Uzair Baloch and others was nominated in the Arshad Pappu murder case and he was enlarged on bail.

An antiterrorism court has been conducting the trial of the case inside the judicial complex in prison.

According to the prosecution, on March 16, 2013 Arshad Pappu with his brother, confidant and 10-year-old son had gone to attend the party of a friend in Defence Housing Authority. The boy came home around midnight and informed his mother that around 20 men in two vehicles came to the flat in the DHA and took his father and the two others away.

The captives were killed after being subjected to torture and the bodies of the alleged gangster and his brother were thrown into manholes in Kalakot after being mutilated, it added.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (punishment for premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 297 (trespassing on burial place, etc.), 392 (punishment for robbery), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Kalakot police station on a directive of the Supreme Court.

Arshad Pappu was booked in around 60 cases, but he was never convicted in any case since most of the key witnesses either did not turn up to testify against him or turned hostile before the courts.

He was released in the middle of February 2012 from a prison in Balochistan following his acquittal in what appeared to be the last case against him pertaining to the murder of Faiz Mohammad aka Mama Faizu, a transporter and father of Uzair Jan.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2022