A man suspected of involvement in the attack on slain Punjab home minister Colonel (r) Shuja Khanzada was sent on 14-day remand in the custody of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Tuesday.
The CTD announced Qasim Muawiya’s arrest on Tuesday as he was presented before Rawalpindi judicial magistrate Shafqat Saeed Gondal.
The judge sent Muawiya on 14-day remand in custody of the CTD.
Shuja Khanzada was killed in a suicide attack on his political office in Shadi Khan village, Attock, in August, along with 16 others.
Two suicide bombers affiliated with the Taliban carried out the bombing, a provincial government official had earlier said. Two additional suicide bombers had been deputed to Lahore to attack Khanzada’s residence, the official said, but they were recalled after the Attock attack.
Following the incident, a First Information Report (FIR) had been filed by the Station House Officer (SHO) Ghulam Shabbir of the Rangoo police station on behalf of the state against those involved in the attack.
An initial investigation report given to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif revealed that the home minister was killed in retaliation of the killing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi chief Malik Ishaq and others.
The CTD in August took two members of a banned organisation ─ Qari Tahir and Mohammad Zubair ─ who allegedly spied on Khanzada into custody.
The suspects had been following Khanzada for at least a couple of weeks before the attack.