Islamabad Inspector General (IG) Ali Nasir Rizvi on Sunday said that the suspect who allegedly shot dead a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) officer was arrested “within nine hours”.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the IG said the suspect was “arrested within nine hours” of the incident.

IG Rizvi noted that PAF Group Captain Asim Tariq tried to “save” a woman after witnessing an argument between her and the suspect, but the man opened fire, which struck the officer.

The IG highlighted that the group captain stopped the man when “he was trying to forcefully take the woman away with him”.

He hailed the martyred officer as a “true patriot and citizen of Pakistan”, who did what anyone else would have after witnessing such an incident with a woman.

IG Rizvi said the woman and the suspect used to work at a cash and carry outlet in G-6. The woman was a representative of a cosmetics company, while the man represented a brand of frozen food items.

The police chief said it was the third time that the suspect was giving the woman a ride to the store, adding that she was under the impression that he would take her to the same location.

“She did not know anything. She hadn’t even spent 10 days working there,” the IG said.

Narrating the turn of events, the IG said, “After picking her up today, Saad Abbasi wanted to take Nimrah to a park or some other location. The woman resisted, at which he had to stop the motorcycle […] at 9th Avenue.”

He added that an argument began between the two as the woman insisted on heading to her workplace for an inspection of her stall.

“The group captain was going for an official assignment towards Rawalpindi. When he was passing by there, he saw that a man was forcefully pulling a woman towards his bike,” he said.

The officer then took a U-turn, parked his vehicle next to the suspect’s vehicle, introduced himself and told the man to stay away from the woman.

IG Rizvi said the suspect moved his motorcycle forward but then “returned” and stopped “right next to the car”.

“He fired with the pistol he had, which hit the group captain and resulted in his martyrdom on the spot,” he said, recalling that the woman had already come to the left/passenger side of the vehicle.

The suspect then fled from the spot, the Islamabad IG said.

Tracing suspect ‘huge challenge’: IG

The police chief described the process of tracing the suspect as a “huge challenge” as the woman did not even know the suspect’s residential address.

He elaborated that 11 teams were constituted, including digital surveillance and Safe City camera teams.

IG Rizvi said the suspect was “so shrewd” that he changed his shirt, switched off his phone number and was trying to flee through the bus service.

“We observed 275 Safe City cameras and a number of private cameras and 137 CDRs (call detail records). We finally traced the suspect and came to know that the suspect had earlier done the same with another woman,” the IG said.

“Instead of coming to the police station, their families settled the matter mutually,” he stated about an incident when the suspect had taken a woman to Mianwali.

Noting that the suspect hailed from Abbottabad, he said 13 raids were carried out within Islamabad, while teams were also sent to Lahore, Dera Ismail Khan and other areas. He added that there were over 100 officers in the teams, who finally traced and apprehended the culprit.

The IG said Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was supervising the entire operation and affirmed that all legal actions would be taken.