PAF officer murder suspect sent to jail for identification parade

• Judge questions suspect over fatal shooting.
• Suspect to appear before court again on July 20.
• Police formed 11 teams to trace suspect.

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad on Monday sent suspect Saad Abbasi to jail on a 14-day judicial lock-up for an identification parade in the murder case of PAF Group Captain Asim Tariq.

ATC Judge Abual Hasanat Mohammad Zulqarnain heard the case registered by Islamabad Police against Abbasi.

A PAF officer was martyred after intervening to protect a woman from abduction on the 9th Avenue, police said on Sunday.

Group Captain Asim Tariq was travelling on the 9th Avenue when he saw a woman getting off a motorcycle while the rider was pulling her hand, police said.

Acting as a responsible citizen, he turned and stopped near the motorcycle. The woman ran to the other side of his vehicle. Police said the suspect, identified as Saad, began arguing with Group Captain Tariq before opening fire. The PAF officer later succumbed to his injuries, while the suspect fled the scene.

During the hearing today, the investigating officer (IO) told the court that the suspect needed to be sent for an identification parade.

"There are also two eyewitnesses in the case," prosecutor Raja Naveed told the court.

"Why did you do this?" Judge Zulqarnain asked the suspect during the proceedings.

"I was with a girl, and a man came and was disturbing us," Abbasi told the court.

The judge responded: "Disturbing you? Were you doing something good that he disturbed you?"

The court subsequently remanded the suspect in judicial custody for 14 days to complete the identification parade and directed to produce Abbasi again before court on July 20.

Addressing press conference a day earlier, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ali Nasir Rizvi disclosed that the suspect was apprehended following a coordinated, multi-layered operation that combined digital monitoring with physical intelligence gathering.

The IGP explained that the suspect had previously picked the woman up from her residence on two occasions. On the day of the incident, an argument erupted near Shaheen Chowk when the suspect attempted to pressure her into accompanying him to a park or another location instead of her workplace, which she firmly refused to do.

IGP Rizvi noted that the acquaintance between the suspect and the woman had only lasted a few days, adding that she did not even possess information regarding his residential address.

To resolve the high-profile case, the police chief established 11 specialised police teams tasked with tracking the assailant.

The breakthrough in the investigation came through the rigorous analysis of technological data. Law enforcement officials reviewed footages from 275 Safe City and private CCTV cameras alongside recordings from 137 digital video recorders (DVRs).