LAHORE: Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) police claimed on Wednesday to have arrested a hitman allegedly involved in the killing of a former police inspector and his three armed friends some 12 years ago.

Ex-inspector Naveed Saeed and his three friends were gunned down by their rivals over a property dispute in November 2005. Sattukatla police had registered a case under anti-terrorism charges against three nominated and some unidentified persons.

Police had arrested two of the three nominated suspects, Shani Baba and Babar, who were acquitted by the court in 2012. The third [nominated] suspect, Shaukat, went into hiding after the incident.

Naveed Saeed, who earned notoriety for extra-judicial killings, was allegedly involved in murdering around 100 people, including proclaimed offenders and suspected militants. Naveed was also accused of trying to kill former president Asif Ali Zardari when he was in the custody of Karachi police. Naveed went to England after removal from service. Later, he returned from the UK and started real estate business. He was killed by his opponents when he tried to grab a plot in Sattukatla.

CIA Saddar DSP Anwar Saeed told Dawn the police received information that Shaukat had come back to Pakistan and was living in Okara.

He said a team raided a house in surroundings of Okara district and arrested him. He said Shaukat was declared [a] proclaimed offender some 12 years ago when he left the country and started living in Dubai and Sharjah.

He said initial investigation showed that he came back to Pakistan and settled in Okara. He said Shaukat confessed to killing the former inspector after getting Rs300,000 from his rivals.

Shaukat was a trained shooter and involved in 12 other shootings in different areas of the city, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2017