PESHAWAR: Former federal minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Murad Saeed narrowly escaped a police raid on a house in Peshawar’s Defence Housing Authority, the police said on Sunday.

They, however, said that they had arrested Saeed’s relative and personal staff members. They added that other family members, including two women, were charged in an FIR registered at the Nasir Bagh police station for giving Mr Saeed an opportunity to escape.

SP Warsak division Arshad Khan said that the Nasir Bagh police had received information about Saeed’s presence at his relative’s house in Peshawar’s DHA on Saturday. He added that a team raided the house.

Khan said that police arrested Saeed’s brother-in-law, Asad Ilyas, Saeed’s two personal employees and took into custody two vehicles, registered in Saeed’s name.

According to the FIR, police carried out the raid after receiving information that Saeed, wanted in several cases, including Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorist Act, was present at Ilyas’s house. It added that people present in the house, including women, scuffled with the police, giving Saeed an opportunity to escape.

The FIR stated that the police recovered pistols and ammunition from the two cars. It further added that the house owner, Ilyas, Mohammad Arsalan, Azizur Rehman and two woman relatives of the former federal minister, were charged under sections 506, 353, 186, 216, 148 and 149 of Pakistan Penal Code and 15 of the Arms Act.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2023