LAHORE, Jan 12: Two special police teams of CIA and investigation wing were constituted on Friday to arrest the nominated accused in the murder of Punjab additional advocate-general Arif Bhinder and others.

The decision was taken at an emergency meeting called by capital city police chief (additional IG) Khwaja Khalid Farooq and attended by the divisional SPs to launch the manhunt.

The police, on the special directives, cordoned off the vital city routes to trace the culprits.

The investigation and CIA police seized the car from Gulshan-i-Ravi area, which was used in the incident and recovered empty shells of Kalashnikov. They also took 12 people into custody.

Arif and his brother were murdered in the presence of security cover of eight police guards who remained unable to fight the sudden attack. The assailants left no chance for the safe escape of their rivals from the spot and sprayed bullets for more than 10 minutes, an eyewitness told this reporter.

It is learnt that Arif Bhinder, before leaving the house on Friday morning, had stopped one security vehicle from accompanying his convoy owing to short time. He had been enjoying complete official security cover besides having five to six personal bodyguards in order to save himself and his family from the rivals.

It is worth mentioning that Arif Bhinder was shot at and injured by Malik Zahid alias Zahdu, Malik Nawaz and others on Oct 15, 2005, in Islampura area, but the police could arrest only Nawaz and Faisal while Zahid was declared proclaimed offender. While in another attempt of murder a month ago, Arif escaped unhurt while his guard suffered injuries.

The political rivalry between Arif Bhinder and Malik Zahid started a few years ago when the former contested election for the union council No 13 nazim seat from his Khokhar village and the Malik family had nurtured grudge against their defeat. Arif Bhinder later resigned from the slot when he was appointed additional advocate-general.

A case was registered in Islampura police station and Nawaz Malik and his accomplices were arrested, but Zahid managed to escape.

Arif had already shifted from Khokhar village to a rented house on Golding Road near Waris Chowk to avoid attacks and tried to reconcile with Malik party, but to no avail.

The house owner, Malik Saeed, told Dawn that Arif had changed his residence to avoid further assaults by his rivals four years back. “He had been residing at the ground floor of his Golding Road residence along with his wife and two minor children,” he added. Mr Saeed further said owing to old enmity with the Malik party, it was a routine of Kashif (Bhinder) to pick and drop his elder brother Arif Bhinder to office. On the day of incident, Kashif was going to drop his brother, he said.

Deceased Malik Zahid was among the 10 people who were later nominated as accused in the FIR. The others were: Malik Latif, Attique Nawaz, Arif, Abbas, Afzaal, Asghar Shah, Malik Sarwar, Malik Riaz and Malik Qaiser. Malik Nawaz, Malik Noor and Malik Kamran Yousaf have also been made part of the investigation process.

Sources told Dawn that Malik Kamran, a serving SP, is a brother-in-law of Malik Zahid.

Meanwhile, tension gripped the area after the incident and traffic remained choked for some hours soon afterwards. Senior police officers and squads of civic organisations rushed to the spot immediately after they were informed about the happening.

Meanwhile, the lawyers of Aiwan-i-Adal staged a protest demonstration and blocked the Lower Mall area in protest against the murders. They chanted slogans against the police for failing to improve the law and order situation.

Some of the protesters also tried to enter the secretariat and damaged the main gate.