Police arrest killer of journalist Wali Khan Babar

KARACHI: Police on Monday claimed to have arrested the killer of a journalist, Wali Khan Babar after more than six years when he was convicted for the murder by a court.

On 13 January 2011, journalist Babar was killed in Karachi’s Liaquatabad area when he was returning home from his office.

Karachi police chief, Ghulam Nabi Memon in a press conference said the accused Kamran alias Zeeshan Shani was arrested during a joint operation, adding that Shani had opened fire on Babar.

Memon said that till 2015, four accused received life imprisonment in the case and another suspect Faisal Mota was arrested.

The police official further said the accused Kamran was still at large and kept changing his hideouts and finally this morning, on the intelligence-based action by a federal agency and special investigation Sindh unit apprehended him with weapons.

Memon said that Shani lived in several areas for five years and then shifted to the Gulshan-e-Maymar area, where he was living with his family.

The police official said during the initial investigation, the accused has informed police about four murder cases so far and they will seek more information from him. Both Kamran alias Shani and Faisal Mota were involved in the murder so they received death sentences, he added.

In March 2014, an anti-terrorism court in Kandhkot had announced death sentences for the accused Kamran and Faisal Mehmood, alias Faisal Mota, in absentia and declared them as absconders in the murder case. In March 2015, Faisal Mota was later apprehended during a raid at the then MQM headquarters, Nine-Zero.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, “Babar was shot shortly after his story on gang violence aired on the country’s most widely watched broadcaster, Geo TV.”

Four witnesses for the case were killed during the years 2011-2012, while advocate Naimat Ali Randhawa was murdered in September 2013 at the time when he was acting as a special public prosecutor in the case.