LAHORE: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of police on Saturday took four members of Aalmi Majlis-i-Tahfuz-i-Khatam-i-Nubuwaat into custody for their alleged involvement in killing a retired professor of the Ahmadi community.

Dr Ashfaq Ahmad, 68, a nutritionist by profession and a retired professor of the Lahore University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, and his grandson were travelling by a car to attend their religious gathering in Sabazazar when an unidentified motorcyclist stopped them at a traffic signal near Shah Fareed Chowk on April 7 and fired on them. Mr Ahmad suffered critical bullet wounds and succumbed to his injuries on the spot.

Earlier, Sabazazar police had registered a [murder] case against unidentified person(s) but later handed the case over to the Lahore CTD police who added terrorism charges [to the FIR].

Later, a banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami had claimed responsibility for the killing. A news release issued by the outfit stated that a commando of the the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami’s Riaz Basra brigade had killed Mr Ahmad.

According to sources, the CTD police had raided a house in Singhpura locality of Baghbanpura and took Hassan Moavia, Irfan, Muhammad Khan and Jahanzaib into custody.

A senior CTD police officer on condition of anonymity told Dawn that they had taken four suspects who belonged to Aalmi Majlis-i-Tahfuz-i-Khatam-i-Nubuwaat into custody for interrogation. One of the suspects, Hassan Moavia, was released because he was declared innocent and others were still in custody and would be interrogated, he added.

On March 30, Malik Latif, a prominent lawyer belonging to the [Ahmadi] community, was shot dead in Nankana Sahib. Banned sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had claimed responsibility for the attack.

The CTD have arrested the suspect and registered a case against him under terrorism charges.

ARRESTED: Factory Area police have arrested a man for impersonating an army officer and recovered a uniform and forged identification documents from him.

Police said they were receiving complaints that a man was allegedly impersonating a member of an intelligence agency of the army and blackmailing the people.

Police arrested the suspect, who identified himself as Rana Anwar Ahmed and recovered [fake] documents and uniform from his custody. Police later shifted the suspect to undisclosed location for further interrogation.

It merits mentioning that police investigators are also searching for a robbers gang operating in the city and looting people after wearing uniform of law enforcement agencies.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2017