Police release Wali Babar’s killer on political pressur

Law enforcement agencies arrested the main culprit behind reporter Wali Babar’s murder, but released him on political pressure that was exerted from Islamabad, Pakistan Today has reliably learnt.
According to sources in the intelligence agencies, LEAs arrested Faisal Mota from North Nazimabad area of Karachi in the middle of last month and kept him in detention in a private prison in Malir Cantt. Initially some officers of LEAs interrogated him and send a brief report to seniors in Islamabad, the sources claimed.
“It was just an initial investigation and Faisal confessed his involvement in the reporter’s murder,” sources said.
Other investigation officers of the Karachi Police and other intelligence agencies also requested to be part of the investigation and some Karachi Police officials interrogated Mota in custody.
Later, the custodian received instructions from an influential personality in the Interior Ministry to release the culprit. “The person asked for an immediate release of the culprit and instructed not to follow the case,” the sources said. They said there might have been be a settlement between the administration of the TV channel and the government, as the TV channel had stopped the campaign demanding the arrest of the culprits.
“Intelligence agencies sent reports to the administration of the TV channel and told them the brief history and achievements of LEAs in the case,” sources said. The agencies probing the case had revealed the identity of the killers to the management and senior staff members of the news group.
“Officers of the agencies concerned met senior staff members, including icons of a private TV channel to brief them about the culprits including the employee of the TV channel involved in the murder of Wali Babar,” he said.
Karachi Police announced the arrest of five of the 17 to 18 suspects in the murder, including Faisal alias Nafsiati, Syed Mohammad Ali Rizvi, Shahrukh alias Mani, Naveed alias Polka and Mohammad Shakeel.
The accused confessed their involvement in the killing of Babar on January 13, 2011. The accused later told the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that a colleague of Babar escorted the ring leader of a gang of target killers to the channel’s office in Karachi and helped him take pictures of Babar. The channel’s employee also provided details of Babar’s residence and his work schedule to Mota, the accused said. The informant was also killed later.
The ring leader, Mota, then distributed the pictures among a team of 26 target killers. The five accused in custody declared Mota as their leader and named 25 others as members of the group – Mohammad Ayub, Imran, Zeeshan alias Raja, Asif alias Waseem Commando, Liaquat, Nasir Iqbal, Fahmeed, Shahid alias Commando, Jawaid Sheikh, Chaand, Abrar, Dilshad, Khalid Saeed, Samee, Ayub Arain, Tahir Naveed alias Polka, Nasir alias Ganja, Raja Naseem, Shareef Mota, Azeem, Mohammad Shakeel, Munawar Iqbal, Faizan, Shahrukh and Jameel.