Investigators probing the murder of 19-year old student Intizar Ahmed in Defence Housing Authority on January 13 by nine personnel of Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) have concluded that there was no ‘criminal conspiracy’ behind the murder involving a senior police officer, it emerged on Thursday.

The incident, however, appears to be more than a mistake.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) termed it a “cold-blooded murder”, saying it will now submit a report before the court under Section 173 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to initiate a trial of all nine ACLC personnel over murder charges.

IGP Sindh, A.D. Khowaja had tasked the CTD to carry out an investigation into the case after as the victim’s father, Ishtiaq Ahmed, had raised objections on the police investigation.

“So far, no concrete evidence has emerged to prove that there was a criminal conspiracy behind the murder,” said CTD in-charge DIG Pervez Ahmed Chandio.

The CTD probe also suggested that it did not seem to be a mistake by the ACLC officials.

“It was a cold-blooded murder of the teenager,” admitted the senior officer who was supervising the probe.

The police have no ‘licence to kill’ as they are supposed to react only in ‘self-defence’, and that even when they were attacked.

When the ACLC officials stopped the vehicle of the teenager, they did not bother to check it. They did not even ask the teenager to remove glasses of the vehicle to examine it. They also did not ask the teenager as to who was he.

“Even the ACLC officials did not disclose to the teenager that they belong to police,” said the CTD DIG.

They demonstrated highly unprofessional behaviour while dealing with the case. Therefore, the CTD has come to a conclusion that it was a cold-blooded murder, he maintained.

The CTD probe also established ‘common intention’ of all nine ACLC officials behind the murder.

Elaborating, acting DIG CTD pointed out that though it was established that two ACLC personnel, namely Daniyal and Bilal opened indiscriminate firing on the teenager’s car yet common intention of other seven ACLC personnel including three inspectors was apparent as their behaviour was no different from others.

They did not stop them and also did not help injured Intizar to take him to a nearby hospital for treatment when he was hurt by their firing.

“Instead, all ACLC officials managed to escape from the crime scene,” said Chandio.

When they were asked as to why they fled, the ACLC personnel replied that they feared ‘people’s reaction,’ which meant they had ‘guilty feeling'.

Former ACLC SSP’s role

Regarding the role of former ACLC SSP Muqadas Haider, as the victim’s father insisted his involvement in the murder, the CTD DIG said so far no evidence on record or disclosed from any source including the complainant has emerged about his [Haider’s] involvement in the murder.

“We are open to investigation at any stage to further probe this aspect,” declared Chandio. He revealed that the CTD has also investigated the latest allegation levelled by the father, but did not find any evidence that SSP Muqadas Haider is related to the girl who was accompanying Intizar at the time of the incident.