KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Tuesday remanded a serving policeman from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in jail custody in connection with a case of the alleged smuggling of arms into Karachi.

The investigation officer (IO) of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) produced Head Constable Azharuddin before Judicial Magistrate (East) Muhammad Waqas Afzal after getting one-day physical custody, requesting to extend the custody for further interrogation.

However, the court dismissed the IO’s request and ordered the suspect to be sent to prison.

During previous proceedings, the IO informed the court that acting on a tip-off, the CTD conducted a raid near the KMC Sports Complex on Kashmir Road and apprehended the suspect in possession of pistols in a school bag.

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

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

The police stated that the detained suspect was a serving policeman in the KP police force and part of an interprovincial arms smuggling network engaged in illegal weapons’ sales through social media channels, supplying them to Karachi and other parts of the country.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2024