LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has finalised all arrangements for the demonstration to be held on Wednesday (tomorrow). The party leaders claim around 100,000 people will join the protest to seek justice for the Model Town incident.

“We have finalised all arrangements and will not bow down in front of the government,” said PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Ghandapur.

Talking to The Express Tribune, he said that it would be a peaceful protest and assured no damage to public property. “The party has established a master control room at the PAT office in Model Town and formed 14 committees to look over the sit-in.
Mall Road’s Charring Cross has its own significance despite the fact that it is the political and business hub of the city. It is also a main thoroughfare of the metropolis from there thousands of vehicles pass over the 24 hours of a day. On the other hand, the Punjab government has already imposed Section 144 for any political gathering in this area.

Various political activists of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Muttahida Muslim League (MML), Ulam-e-Mushaikh Council, all factions of Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam (Except Fazalur Rehman group), Jamat Islami and Sunni Ittihad have assured their presence in the protest.

Replying to a question, Gandapur said that PAT, along with other parties, will hold the sit-in at any cost.”

Gandapur, in the meeting said this was an alliance of political parties to seek justice for the victims of the Model Town incident. “We do not make alliances for any political point-scoring or to destabilise the political process in the country.”

“The Model Town inquiry report by Justice Baqir Najafi proved that the chief minister and the law minister were instrumental in the killing of PAT workers,” he said. He added that they have made the alliance only to seek justice for the Model Town incident.

Gandapur said that for the last three year, PML-N ministers have been appearing on TV and denying their role in the Model Town tragedy. “ PAT has not deviated from his earlier stance with regards to seeking justice on the incident.”

“I greatly appreciate the families and relatives of the martyrs for their patience. The party workers who lost their lives in the firing incident were wealthy when it came to piety and virtue.” Gandapur believed Shehbaz Sharif and other PML-N leaders would be in jail soon.

Earlier, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Dr Tahirul Qadri announced that an agitation campaign would be launched across the country on January 17 by various like-minded opposition parties to force the Punjab chief minister and the law minister to tender resignations.

He said all members of the steering committee have agreed to launch a movement to overthrow the government.

Dr Qadri said that everyone knew who opened indiscriminate fire on innocent protesters. “We want justice. Dr Tauqir Shah (then principal secretary to the chief minister) was ordered to kill people in Model Town and later was appointed as an ambassador to keep mum over the issue.

LAHORE: Two cases of sexual abuse of children surfaced in the city and two suspects were arrested on Monday.

In the first incident, a five-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by a neighbour. Muhammad Ashfaq, the father the boy, told The Express Tribune that his son was playing outside their house in Mangi Mandi when a man, identified as Umar, took him to a nearby field. When the son didn’t return home after some time, the family started searching for him. Witnesses guided them about the direction the suspect had taken with their son.

“Just as we reached near sugarcane fields, we heard the screams of our child. We saw the suspect had removed the clothes of my son and was sexually assaulting him. We caught him immediately and handed him over to the police.” The police arrested the suspect and registered an FIR against him.

In another incident which took place in Sabzazar, the family of a 12-year-old boy alleged that the boy had gone to buy milk from a nearby shop. The boy’s uncle told The Express Tribune that the owner of the shop, Imran, a resident of Mandi Usmanwala Kasur, tried to molest his nephew. On the complaint of Ilyas, police registered an FIR against the suspect.

A police officer at the Sabzazar police station, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the complainant had manipulated the case. “The suspect had only touched the boy’s face gently and treated him nicely and the family has registered an FIR against him.” On the other hand, Investigation Officer Imtiaz Ahmad said that they have arrested the suspect and have conducted his and the victim’s medical examination. The suspect will be presented before the court for further investigation, he added.

Security guard of a girls’ school injured

A security guard of a girls’ school was shot at and injured in Harbanspura on Monday. The incident occurred outside the Govt Girls School Harbanspura in Jorha Peer. The victim, identified as Muhammad Akbar, works as a security guard and gardener at the school.

Police said that he exchanged some harsh words with some unidentified men who would gather outside the school to harass students. Akbar had repeatedly asked them not to stand outside the school, but they didn’t pay any attention. On Monday, two unidentified men came to the school, pulled out a gun and opened fire at Akbar and fled. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital.

Residents complained that the boys would gather outside the school daily to harass female students. Akbar often warned them and also exchanged harsh words with them many times. On getting information of the incident, police teams reached the spot, collected forensic evidence from the crime scene and recorded statements of witnesses.

District Education Officer Ehsanul Haq told the media that initial investigations suggested that the victim was shot at and injured over a personal enmity. He added the victim was in a stable condition and police were looking into the matter further.

DUBAI/JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, detained for over two months in an anti-corruption crackdown, is negotiating a possible settlement with authorities but so far has not agreed on terms, a senior Saudi official said.

Prince Alwaleed, whose net worth has been estimated by Forbes magazine at $17 billion, is chairman and owner of international investment firm Kingdom Holding 4280.SE, and one of the country’s most prominent businessmen.

“He offered a certain figure but it doesn’t meet the figure required from him, and until today the attorney-general hasn’t approved it,” the official said on condition of anonymity under government briefing rules.

A second source familiar with Prince Alwaleed’s case told Reuters on Saturday that the price had offered to make a “donation” to the Saudi government, which would avoid any admission of wrongdoing, and to do so from assets of his own choosing. The government refused those terms, the source said.

Kingdom Holding’s share price jumped as much as 9.8 per cent on Sunday in response to news of the negotiations, adding about $860 million to the company’s capitalization. The stock price was still 7 percent below its level just before Prince Alwaleed was detained.

Since early November Prince Alwaleed has been held, with dozens of other members of Saudi Arabia’s political and business elite detained in the crackdown, in Riyadh’s opulent Ritz Carlton hotel as authorities seek to reach settlements with the detainees.

Saudi officials say they aim to claw back some $100 billion of funds that rightfully belong to the state. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who launched the crackdown, has indicated he wants to close existing cases quickly and expects most suspects to cut a deal.

The allegations against Prince Alwaleed include money laundering, bribery and extorting officials, a Saudi official told Reuters soon after his detention. Neither he nor his company has commented publicly on the charges.

Kingdom Holding, which has said it is continuing to operate normally, did not respond to requests for comment when asked about any settlement talks.

Construction giant Saudi Binladin Group said on Saturday that some of its shareholders might transfer part of their holdings to the state in a settlement with authorities. Chairman Bakr Bin Laden and several family members were detained in the crackdown.

In late November, senior Saudi Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, once seen as a leading contender to the throne, was freed after reaching a settlement with authorities that involved paying more than $1 billion, according to a Saudi official.

LAHORE: Police made no headway in arresting the prime suspect involved in murdering at least eight underage girls, 10 days after his latest victim Zainab went missing on January 4.

The 36-hour deadline issued by the Lahore High Court (LHC) to police for arresting the suspects also lapsed without any progress.

On Sunday, Inspector-General of Police Arif Nawaz personally visited Kasur and held a meeting with members of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
The meeting was attended, among others, by JIT head RPO Multan Muhammad Idrees, RPO Sheikhupura Zulfiqar Hameed, Director-General Punjab Forensic Science Agency Dr Muhammad Ashraf Tahir, SSP IC3 Akbar Nasir, DIG Investigation Lahore Chaudhry Sultan, DIG Investigation Waqas Nazeer, AIG Legal Abdul Rub, DPO Kasur Zahid Nawaz Marwat, SSP Special Branch Irfanullah Khan.

Members of the JIT briefed IGP about efforts made by police in this regard. JIT head Muhammad Idrees told the IG Punjab that Zainab murder would be solved as soon as CCTV footage and images of alleged person were matched and all persons of this area were DNA tested.

IGP ordered JIT to hasten efforts to arrest the suspect.

JIT separately interviewed family members of previous victims.

It also issued a fresh sketch of the suspect after obtaining a new picture from CCTV camera. The JIT could not obtain any information about the suspect through the picture from NADRA record. They also decided to conduct DNA tests of all people matching the suspect’s age and living in a two-kilometer radius of Zainab’s house.

Meanwhile, Zainab’s father Muhammad Ameen also lashed out against police for their failure to arrest his daughter’s killer. He said that the authorities concerned were assuring him that he would get quick justice but police had so far made no progress. He also called for releasing people arrested by police during protests. He said that family members of arrested protestors were approaching him for help. JIT had so far investigated 247 suspects, collected and analysed CCTV footage and call data record of the area where Zainab went missing.

After interrogating suspects and data analysis, 10 suspects had been short-listed. More persons were weaned out, leaving just three suspects. But, DNA and other evidence showed that the prime suspect was still at large.

The prime suspect, who is yet to be unidentified, is now thought to be a serial killer who is involved in murders of at least eight girls aged between five and seven. At least 13 cases of rape and murder were reported in Kasur since last year.

On Tuesday (January 9), the issue was again highlighted when people staged a protest after Zainab’s body was recovered.

KARACHI: The murder case of a youth in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) took a U-turn on Sunday after personnel of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) of the Karachi police were found to be involved in the killing.

Though the police high-ups have suspended all nine ACLC men allegedly involved in the murder, officials only arrested six of them as according to the police, the remaining three had gone into hiding to avoid arrest.

In an unfortunate incident late on Saturday evening in Karachi’s posh locality of DHA, a 21-year-old man, Intizar Ahmed, who lived on Khayaban-e-Badban, was found shot dead in mysterious circumstances on Khayaban-e-Ittehad.
Intizar’s killing was termed an act of targeted killing by the police in their initial report. However, the case took a U-turn after the ACLC team’s involvement was discovered.

Police investigations revealed that Intizar was not shot by target killers. Instead, he was killed by a special team of the ACLC, the Karachi police’s specialised cell which deals with the theft of vehicles.

Initially, all nine ACLC personnel were suspended by Criminal Investigation Agency chief DIG Saqib Ismail Memon and an inquiry was ordered against them.

The suspended officials included three inspectors, Tariq Rahim, Tariq Mehmood and Azhar Ahsan Rizvi, two head constables, Ghulam Abbas and Shahid, and four constables, Ghulam Abbas, Fawad Khan, Daniyal and Bilal. It was reported that Mehmood was the ACLC SHO while constables Daniyal and Bilal were gunmen of the ACLC SSP.

“[The suspended personnel] have been shifted to Line Sharifabad, ACLC, Karachi till completion of the inquiry. They shall draw pay and allowances as admissible under the rules during suspension period,” reads a letter issued by DIG Memon.

However, six of them were later arrested after the Darakhshan police registered a murder case against them on the complaint of Intizar’s family, while the other three managed to escape.

“We have registered a murder case against the ACLC cops on the complaint of the family,” explained South police chief SSP Javed Akbar Riaz.

“It was an incident of mistaken identity but we have booked the ACLC men in a murder FIR according to what the parents of the victim demanded,” he said, adding that for the past few days vehicles bearing official registration plates were being snatched in the area and a car was also snatched on Saturday.

Speaking to the media outside Jinnah hospital, DIG Memon confirmed that the ACLC police personnel had shot dead the young man. “The ACLC personnel opened fire on the car and hit him. We are looking into this matter,” he said.

In their defence, the ACLC personnel claimed they were looking for car lifters who had been involved in the theft of vehicles bearing official registration plates in DHA.

“We had information that the snatchers usually used a white Corolla. We were looking for them for the last few days and had deployed men in plainclothes in the area,” said one of the arrested ACLC cops.

“We asked the youth to stop his car. When he didn’t stop the car, we opened fire on the vehicle and the young man died.”

Intizar was his parents’ only child and was studying at a university in Malaysia after completing his O and A Levels from The City School Darakhshan campus. He came to Karachi in November for his winter break.

Father’s claims

The deceased’s family also held a press conference over the incident, seeking justice from the authorities.

Accompanied by his sister and lawyer Muhammad Asif Khudai, Intizar’s father Ishtiaq Ahmed demanded justice for his son. The father expressed no faith in the police and appealed to the chief justice and chief of army staff to provide him justice.

“Intizar had a fight with two men two days back – Fahad and Haider – sons of a lawyer and policeman respectively,” the father claimed. He added that it was evident from the multiple bullets fired by the ACLC personnel that they wanted to kill him instead of stopping him.

“There was a clear intention to kill,” said the lawyer. “Multiple bullet holes in the car shows the police aimed not to stop him but kill him.”

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also took notice of the incident and directed the police to share the recovered evidence with the deceased’s family.