GUJRAT: Police claim to have arrested a fugitive with a Rs500,000 head money after he escaped from Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.

The criminal was convicted by the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in the murder case of former Punjab law minister Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq.

District Police Officer (DPO) Ali Mohsin told Dawn that Aurangzaib alias Ranga was wanted by the Gujrat, Gujranwala and Lahore police in a number of heinous crime cases, including murder, robbery, kidnapping for ransom and rape.

The criminal, belonging to Bathowal village of Gujrat tehsil, had murdered the former law minister in December 2002 along with five other people when they were returning from a village in Mr Farooq’s constituency in Sarai Alamgir.

Aurangzaib along with other co-accused were awarded death sentence on six counts and a Rs500,000 fine by the Gujranwala ATC and he was shifted to jail in Lahore. He had fled in 2012 in the guise of a patient after he was shifted to a hospital.

The DPO further said that Aurangzaib had disguised himself after fleeing from jail and was living in Khoi Ratta area of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He was working as a clerk with a lawyer, but continued to commit heinous crimes.

The criminal was also involved in the murder of a senior doctor Dr Ataur Rehman, in Jalalpur Jattan, in 2013 and the Punjab government had fixed a head money of Rs500,000 on him.

Meanwhile, police also claimed to have arrested another outlaw with a head money of Rs200,000.

Asad Gujjar, the spokesman for Gujrat police, told Dawn that Muhammad Latif of Batapur, Lahore was wanted by Gujrat and other district police for being involved in a number of robbery cases. The government had fixed a head money on him.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2019