Kh Sharif murder plan: Police detains Col Ehsan

Pakistan

Kh Sharif murder plan: Police detains Col Ehsan

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17 September,2010 03:33 pm

Police on Friday arrested Col (r) Ehsanur Rehman, the former Special Branch official and the current Punjab Civil Defence director general, who is believed to the be author of the fake intelligence memo about an alleged assassination plot against the Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif. Col Ehsan, however, denied to have signed the said plan while earlier he submitted his written statement to FIA. Source said that the government would coerce Col Ehsan to get a statement from him in its favour. The plot: According to the contents of the fake intelligence memo, suspects Iqbal Mir, Nadeem Chohan, Babar Chaudhry, Khawaja Farooq, Malik Ehsan, Babar Sandhoo, Riaz Gujjar, Mian Kashif, Khurram Gujjar and Samiullah alias Rana Pomi hatched the plot to assassinate the LHC CJ. Some of the suspects were to attack the LHC CJ at his native home during a religious ceremony. The report claimed that the accused, including Sandhoo, would then escape and take refuge in Lambray village near Muridke at the farm of Riaz Gujjar, where the alleged plot was first hatched. However, local police has said that there is no such farmhouse near Muridke and Riaz is a local school teacher. The memo also claimed that the alleged plotters were seen at venues such as the Governor House and the National Accountability Bureaus (NAB) Punjab headquarters at Chamba House. The memo also ostensibly reveled that some criminals linked to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement were also very active and might be involved in this plan. The Punjab Police arrested the eight suspects and kept them at CIA Centre Allama Iqbal Town under tight security. They were interrogated by intelligence agency officials as well as the FIA inquiry officer. However, after a week of interrogation, no solid proof about the alleged plot was uncovered. CIA Superintendent of Police Omar Virk has now declared all the accused innocent and forwarded a report to the Punjab Police officials , as well as the FIA inquiry officer.Role of Special Branch: Sources said that the author of the fake memo, Col (r) Ehsanur Rehman, withdrew an amount of Rs 1.7 million from a secret fund in August, 2010 before relieving his charge and joining the Civil Defense Department. In order to justify this amount and to obtain the favour by the Punjab CM by maligning the top Pakistan Peoples Party leadership, Rehman came up with the idea of concocting an intelligence memo about a fake plot against the LHC CJ, the sources said. Kh Sharifs murder plot is fake: Najam SethiTalking to Dunya News on the issue, senior analyst Najam Sethi said that the Punjab government has accepted two things: one is that the report has been made by special branch and that the report has been sent to military intelligence agency for confirmation. Sethi said that there is an opinion that the said report has been leaked by Col Ehsan while the new ADG Durrani was not aware of it. He said that FIA is trying to get the statement from Ehsan and Touqeer Shah while the provincial government is trying to save the duo. It is proved that the report is fake and a big drama, Najam said and added that now the responsibility lies with the Punjab government and CM Shahbaz would be held accountable that who made the report and who leaked it. Governor Taseer wants to make a storm in a teacup: Rana SanaullahPunjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, while talking to Dunya News, said that FIA is a governmental organization and is conducting the investigation on directives, adding that Col Ehsans detention could not be termed as arrest. Sanaullah said that the Governor wanted to make a storm in a teacup but his designs would be foiled. The law minister said that special branch sent the report to the Punjab government on Sept 5, which was immediately forwarded to ISI for confirmation. He maintained that the police have been ordered to grill the ten culprits named in the said report to ascertain the facts.