MIANWALI, Jan 30 It's not all water under the bridge when misfortune invades someone's life. Ghulam Yasin is one such 'ill-fated' person who has been arrested 37 years after a robbery-cum-murder he was allegedly involved in. During these four decades, he changed his name after being declared a proclaimed offender (PO), got fake documents prepared, went abroad, stayed there for over 30 years and then returned to lead what appeared to be a settled life in Mianwali, considering that the 'outwash of the past' had, in the meantime, been swept by Indus waters away to the Arabian Sea and he is not going to pay for his alleged misdeeds any more.

Way back in March 1973, a cash van of Adamjee Sugar Mills (now Facto Sugar Mills), Darya Khan, then in Mianwali and now in Bhakkar district, was going to Kalurkot to make payments to cane growers.

When the van reached near Rakh Ghulaman, some employees of the mills, in the guise of robbers, intercepted the van at gunpoint and looted Rs200,000 in cash. When the van staffers resisted, the robbers opened fire, killing one of them.

The Kalurkot police registered a case under Section 302, 392, 394 and 396 of the Pakistan Penal Code against six suspects namely Ghulam Hassan, s/o Nawb Khan, Ali Muhammad, s/o Ahmed Khan, Hanif, s/o Nur Muhammad, Muhammad Aslam, s/o Wazir Khan, Ghulam Yasin, s/o Ghulab Khan, and Siraj Din (van driver).

The police arrested four of the suspects. Siraj Din turned approver and was acquitted. Ghulam Hasan and Hanif were sentenced to 25 years in imprisonment while Ali Muhammad was sentenced to death but he died during his imprisonment.

The remaining two suspects, Ghulam Yasin and Aslam, were never arrested and were declared POs.

Yasin first went into hiding and, in the meantime, got fake documents prepared with new name, i.e. Muhammad Ibrahim, and went to Saudi Arabia where he spent not less than 35 years.

Last year, he returned to Pakistan, opened Madina General Store at Truck Adda, Mianwali, and started running his business. Much older Yasin would wear a beard now and lead a seemingly contended life. By the time he returned, Mianwali district's frontiers had been delimited afresh as Bhakkar had also been made a district. Since the crime scene as well as the area police station, Kalurkot, fell in the territorial limits of another district, there was least likelihood of Yasin's landing in any serious trouble regarding his alleged offence.

But, one day fortune suddenly stopped smiling on him, and a retired police official of Kalurkot recognised him and informed the local police.

Inspector Abdul Qayyum Khan, who is in-charge of the special squad, arrested Yasin after due verification.

A local magistrate on Friday sent the suspect to Central Jail on judicial remand and directed Kalurkot police in Bhakkar district to carry out further interrogation.