The lofty claims of the Lahore Police of recovering Shahbaz Taseer at the earliest have fallen flat, as police have made no major breakthrough in the abduction case so far.
Well-placed sources in Investigation wing of the Lahore Police said although seven investigation teams were probing Taseer’s abduction under the supervision of Capital City Police Officer Ahmed Raza Tahir and SSP Investigation Abdul Razzaq Cheema on special orders by the Punjab inspector general of Police, none of them had been able to find any major clue so far.
The sources said the investigators were still groping in the dark and had found no clue of the kidnappers despite conducting extensive searches in Model Town, Gulberg and DHA localities late into Friday night.
They said investigators were following two leads, mobile phone records of Shahbaz Taseer and the CCTV recording of the crime scene.
Ahmed Raza Tahir told reporters that Taseer had returned to the city after visiting Dubai only a day before his abduction and very few members of his family and servants were aware of his return. He said the car which Taseer was using belonged to his brother Sheharyar, and he was using the car as his SUV had broken down. He claimed that kidnappers had not yet managed to take Taseer out of Lahore and there were strong leads that he was being detained somewhere in Model Town, Gulberg or DHA.
Reportedly, Taseer was involved in a monetary issue with a Pathan family that wanted to purchase a building owned by First Capital Group located in Gulberg. The family gave Rs 1.5 million in advance to Shahbaz, but was now demanding the money back as it was not in a position to pay the remaining amount at the moment. The Punjab IG visited the Governor’s House on Saturday to brief Latif Khosa on the progress of the case. Sources said the IG told Khosa that a suspect living in a guest house in Gulberg had gone missing since the incident and police had contacted NADRA to get the person’s record.
PPP to take up issue in PA
LAHORE:The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab has decided to table the matter of Shahbaz Taseer’s kidnapping in the Punjab Assembly and a requisition would be submitted with the assembly secretariat on Tuesday. On the other hand, a calling attention notice was submitted by PPP leader Shaukat Basra on Saturday, questioning the CM over the issue. PPP sources said the assembly session would be convened to inquire of Punjab CM about the deteriorating law and order in Punjab at a time when Shahbaz Sharif was criticising the governments in other provinces. On the other hand, the PPP threatened to launch a province-wide protest in collaboration with te civil society from Monday if Shahbaz was not recovered by today (Sunday). PPP Punjab President Imtiaz Warraich said the provincial government had completely failed in controlling the escalating crime rate due to which the province had become a haven for criminals. He said Punjab outdid all other provinces in crime rate. Nasir Butt
