Efforts on to arrest 8 co-accused in PTI leader’s murder case

HARIPUR: District Police Officer Kashif Zulfiqar has said that police and CTD authorities were making efforts for the arrest of eight co-accused in the murder of PTI provincial deputy general secretary Malik Tahir Iqbal.

Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, the District Police Officer said the CTD and police have arrested two hired assassins Sher Zaman alias Sher Ghazi and Rehmat Ullah, who confessed that they had murdered Tahir Iqbal and his friend Sardar Gul Nawaz with the help of four other hired assassins on September 13, 2020.

The arrested people, through a statement in the court of judicial magistrate Abbottabad, confessed that they had assassinated Tahir Iqbal and his friend as an MPA from PK-42 Faisal Zaman had hired their services against the payment of Rs2 millions.

Following the statement, the younger brother of the slain PTI leader directly charged 11 persons, including six hired assassins, with double-murder and MPA Faisal Zaman was arrested from the courtroom on January 11 after the cancellation of his pre-arrest bail and he is now under interrogation of CTD in Peshawar.

According to the District Police Officer, the case was traced following the recovery of two motorcycles from the crime scene that were the ownership of Raza Muhammad and Alamzeb, the two employees of MPA Faisal Zaman, who had fled to Nigeria via Dubai soon after the murder, while eight others are still at large.

The District Police Officer said that the police were in contact with higher authorities for the arrest of MPA’s employees through Interpol and raids were being conducted at the hideouts of other fleeing accused and the police and CTD would soon arrest the rest of the accused and produce them before the court.