KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Monday remanded a serving policeman from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to physical custody in a case pertaining to the alleged involvement in the smuggling of arms into Karachi.

The investigating officer (IO) of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had produced KP police Head Constable Azharuddin before Judicial Magistrate (East) Muhammad Waqas Afzal, seeking his 14-day remand.

The IO informed the court that based on intelligence, the CTD conducted a raid near the KMC Sports Complex on Kashmir Road, apprehended the suspect and recovered pistols from him in a school bag.

The CTD’s intelligence wing recovered five pistols of 30 bore and 9mm calibre from the suspect’s possession. As the suspect failed to produce licenses for the pistols, the CTD registered an FIR under Section 34-A of the Sindh Arms Act 2013.

On the request of the 14-day physical remand, the court granted one day, directing that the suspect to be produced on Tuesday (today).

According to the remand report, the suspect had previously smuggled illicit arms into Karachi and was associated with one Daniyal, residing in KP, who was a key accomplice of three arms dealers in the KPK — Qadeer, Saddam, and Nadeem.

The police stated that the detained suspect was a serving policeman in the KPK police force and part of an inter-provincial arms smuggling network engaged in online (through social media) illegal weapons sales, supplying them to Karachi and other parts of the country.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2024