LAHORE, Jan 16: Police are so far unable to find any clue to the nominated accused including a serving Intelligence Bureau SP in the murder of Arif Bhinder and six others. Official sources told Dawn that SP Malik Kamran Yousaf and District Forest Officer Malik Noor, who were accused of planning the killings, could not be arrested despite various raids conducted at Khokhar village, Shahdara belt, Bhudhwala, Pattoki, Gujranwala and Kamoki.

Both the accused are brothers-in-law of one of the attackers, Malik Zahid who was killed in crossfire immediately after the killings.

However, the sources said, letters had been dispatched to the IB director in Islamabad and the Punjab forest secretary to intimate them about the raids being conducted for the arrest of the accused officers.

The sources claimed that plainclothesmen sent to nab Malik Kamran from his Islamabad residence could not trace him, adding the accused was not visiting his office either.

The investigation sources apprehended that the accused might have gone underground in other districts of Punjab. They said none of the accused could so far secure pre-arrest bail owing to lawyers’ boycott of the courts.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has constituted a joint team comprising officers of IB, Crimes Investigation Department and Punjab Home Department under Section 7 of ATA Ordinance to ensure a fair probe into the matter and monitor investigation pace. —Reporter