KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Thursday remanded two men in police custody for interrogation into their alleged act of tampering with evidence and facilitating escape of a murder suspect, Khurram Nisar, who fled to Sweden after allegedly killing a policeman in a Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area.

Khurrum Nisar had allegedly shot dead 34-year-old police constable Abdul Rehman when he stopped his car over suspicion of trying to kidnap a girl in Block-V of Clifton on the night of Nov 21.

Nisar, who lived in Sweden, had purportedly fled the country hours after the incident, by taking advantage of his dual nationality, but police tracked down his brother-in-law, Amir Qadeer, and driver, Aurangzeb.

On Thursday, the investigating officer produced both the detained suspects before the administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts to seek their physical remand in police custody for interrogation.

Court told the pair tampered with evidence, helped the suspect escape abroad

The IO, Inspector Akbar Hussain, informed court that the police had traced the house of Khurrum Nisar, where driver Aurangzeb had parked the car with a black cover and changed its number plate to conceal/damage evidence.

He added that Nisar had phoned his driver on the night between Nov 21 and 22 and called him to the airport, where he told him to have killed the police official.

The IO said on the instructions of Nisar, the driver had removed a 0.9mm caliber pistol, said to be used in the offence, and the vehicle’s number plates to keep them in Nisar’s room. These weapon and number plates were recovered by police.

He further informed that the suspect had also disclosed the incident to his brother-in-law Amir Qadeer, who subsequently accompanied Nisar to the airport and helped him flee to Dubai along with his wife and children.

He maintained that further disclosure were expected from the arrested suspects, therefore, their physical remand for 14 days was required in police custody to complete the investigation and other legal formalities.

However, the judge remanded them in police custody till Nov 30, directing the IO to produce them on the next date along with an investigation report.

A four-member team led by SSP Raza has been established and it would approach the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Interpol and the Swedish embassy for the arrest of the suspect.

According to the FIR, the policemen heard cries of a woman from a passing car on Khayaban-i-Shamsheer near 26th Street signal, at around 11:30pm. Constable Rehman chased the car and got it stopped near the Abdullah Shah Ghazi`s shrine, where he rushed and sat on the front seat of the car. But, the woman got off the car and disappeared.

The driver drove to E-street, Phase-V Extension and stopped in front of a builder`s office, where he and Rehman exchanged hot words. The suspect fired at Rehman and the bullet hit him in the head.

A case was lodged under the Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform), 216 (harbouring offender who has escaped from custody or whose apprehension has been ordered) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with the Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Clifton police station on the complaint of the Inspector Shabbir Ahmed.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2022