LAHORE, Jan 24: Police claimed on Wednesday to have arrested four people allegedly involved in the murder of Punjab Additional Advocate-General Arif Bhinder and eight others.

But police failed to arrest 10 nominated identified accused involved in the killing, official sources told Dawn.

The investigation police also failed to arrest the killers of advocate Niaz Sindhu despite they interrogated MPA Mansha Sindhu, a nominated accused in the case.

Arif Bhinder, his brother Kashif Bhinder, a nephew, a cousin, three police constables and one private guard were killed while six others injured in an ambush by his political rival, Malik Zahid and his accomplices on Jan 12.

Zahid was killed in the shootout, while one of his unidentified accomplice was injured who fled.

Bhinder’s father Malik Akbar Bhinder lodged cases in the Mozang Police Station against 10 nominated identified accused, four unidentified nominated accused and three nominated accused.

Teams from CIA, Cantonment Investigation and Home Department were assigned investigation of the case.

The teams interrogated three nominated accused but failed to get any relevant information from them.

Those nominated accused included Intelligence Bureau SP Malik Kamran Yousaf, Punjab District Forest Officer Malik Noor and Malik Nawaz.

Capital City Police Officer Anwar Virk and Deputy Inspector General (Investigation) Azam Joyia told reporters that four people had been arrested. DIG (Operations) Aftab Cheema was also present.

Investigation and Central Investigation Agency (CIA) teams are under pressure due to a Jan 26 deadline set by the Lahore High Court to arrest the Bhinder’s killers, the Punjab government’s directives and continuous protests and strikes by lawyers.

On Tuesday night, Mianwali police nabbed Usman and Zahid, while former police constable Iqbal Alam and his friend, Iqbal Mir, both from Lahore, were also arrested in separate raids.

Sources privy to investigation said the four arrested people were nominated unidentified accused. Usman and Zahid are also proclaimed offenders.

The sources said the complainant had intentionally included too many names in the first information report. A few of them were close relatives of accused Zahid but were not present at the crime scene, the sources said.

They said nominated accused Malik Latif, Malik Zahid’s brother, had left Pakistan 15 days before the incident.

“Investigation reveals that none of the 10 nominated identified accused were present at the crime spot,” the sources said.

Separately, Joyia said the teams were coordinating with each other to trace the killers of Bhinder and had rounded up many suspects in raids in Lahore, Sargodha, Mianwali, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Rawalpindi and Pakpattan.

The DIG could not satisfied reporters about the arrests of killers of advocate Sindhu and those who shot and injured DIG Tassaduq Husain. Joyia admitted violence in street crime had increased.