ISLAMABAD, Nov 20: A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) under the supervision of Deputy Inspector General of Police has been constituted to probe the assassination of former head of the army’s elite commando force here on Thursday.

The team was constituted on the direction of Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior, Rehman Malik, who directed it to submit the investigation report within three days.

Headed by Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Operation) Islamabad, the team comprises Senior Superintendent of Police Islamabad, Superintendent of Police (CID) and representatives of Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence.

Besides other departments, intelligence agencies and wings are also probing the assassination separately.

The slain Maj-Gen (retired) Ameer Faisal Alvi was a close friend of former president of Pakistan Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf and had engaged in several prominent commando operations before retirement in April in 2006.

However, he remained actively involved in some of the high profile operations against the militants while maintaining a low profile that few knew about.

The sources said that the investigators are working on different possibilities to trace and arrest the assassins and find the motive behind the incident. About five to six months ago, some unidentified persons had inscribed offensive language on the wall of his Bahria town residence along with threats, they added.

The motive behind the assassination was yet to be ascertained, but it could be revenge against his past engagement in operations against militants, friendship with Gen (retired) Musharraf, the sources said.

They added that there was a dim chance that the killers had tried to kill the driver, Tanveer, a resident of Murree over some enmity, and the SSG’s former chief became an unintended victim of the attack.

The sources said he would not have been in the hit list of the militants as he always remained in low profile during operations against them.

The possibility of militant groups’ involvement in the killing is small but could not be ruled out, they added.

Besides, the militants always used high velocity rifles and weapons like AK-47 against their targets. However, in this incident small fire arms (pistols) were used.

The investigators are also ascertaining whether the militants switched over from high velocity weapons to small fire arms to hit their target because it was easy to carry these or some other group was behind the incident, the sources said.

Fourteen shells of bullets were collected from the spot, where the double murder took place, but the investigators believe that the number of bullets fired could not be recovered.

Meanwhile, the Kural police have registered a murder case on the complaint of slain Major-General’s wife, Durre Yasmeen, against unidentified killers on the charge of murder.

The retired SSG chief along with his driver was gunned down when the former was going to his communication technology firm from his Bahria Town house.