KARACHI: Police on Tuesday registered a case against members of an unnamed banned outfit for their alleged involvement in the assassination of Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ali Raza.

The CTD official was shot dead in his neighbourhood in Karimabad on July 7. A local security guard was also killed in the attack.

The case was registered on behalf of the state as it appeared that the victim’s family did not want to pursue the case legally.

Investigators said that the murder was aimed at spreading terrorism in the country, demoralising law enforcers and triggering fear and panic among citizens.

They believed that the officer was killed as the members, mastermind, planners and facilitators of the banned outfits had developed an ‘enmity and conflict’ with him over his work against them while serving in the CTD.

FIR was lodged on behalf of the state and not by victim Ali Raza’s family

The police had registered an FIR on the complaint of Azizabad SHO Imran Afridi under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism), 11-F (membership, support and meetings relating to a proscribed organisation) and 21-I (aid and abetment) of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.

According to the FIR, DSP Ali Raza, posted at the CTD, arrived in his vehicle at flats outside the gate of Shakeel Corporation in Karimabad on July 7. He parked his car and walked inside the flats. When he reached Block-1, armed assailants on a motorcycle, who belonged to a banned terror outfit, opened indiscriminate fire on him.

The FIR said that during his service in the CTD, DSP Ali Raza worked against different ethnic organisations, banned terrorist and separatist outfits and other criminal elements and they had developed an enmity with him. His killing was aimed at spreading terror in the country demoralising the resolve of the law enforcers and creating fear and panic among the citizens, the FIR stated.

After registration of the case, the investigation was handed over to the CTD-Garden, officials said.

They said that 12 spent bullet casings were recovered from the crime scene and they did not match with any weapon in the police record in a forensic analysis.

Earlier on Monday, the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the murder of the DSP in a social media posting.

However, police chose not to name the banned TTP in the FIR.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2024