By Imran Ayub

A police officer shows the images of suspected militants, who escaped from court after a shootout, at his office in Karachi, June 19, 2010. — AP Photo

KARACHI: Police investigating the escape of four suspected militants, who got freed from police custody by their aides following an armed attack on the City Courts premises, have found a 9mm pistol, a hand grenade and two cellphones believed to be in possession of the undertrial prisoners, it emerged on Sunday.

While the investigators have not yet achieved any breakthrough in finding the whereabouts of the suspected militants, they say the objects found from the crime-scene raised questions about the possible connivance of the law-enforcers with those facing trial in the Ashura blast and other high-profile cases.

They felt certain that the evidence gathered from the crime-scene suggests collaboration of suspected militants with the law-enforcers to execute their plan or extreme carelessness on the part of the policemen, sources said, adding that three police officials, including a sub-inspector in charge of the city courts lock-up, had been already arrested for negligence.

“A 9mm pistol was found exactly at that place from where the four suspects — Murad Shah, Murtaza Inayat, Muhammad Wazeer and Shakeeb Farooqi — ran away,” said a senior official, who is part of the investigation team tasked with the arrest of the suspects.

“There is a consensus observation of the investigation team that the pistol belongs to one of the four UTPs. Similarly, two cellphones were found from Murad Shah who died after a hand-grenade that he was carrying went off. Both the cellphones having SIMs (subscriber identity module) of different companies were found on. It’s also obvious that he had a hand-grenade.”

He said the violent episode that lasted for a few minutes and included at least three hand-grenade attacks coupled with frequent and random firing by the armed men could not have allowed such stuff to be transferred to the four UTPs. The facts available on the ground suggested that the four UTPs had already those things when the scene offense began, he said.

“But it has yet to be determined from where they actually got these phones and arms,” said the official. “As we questioned the policemen on duty the four suspects visited the washroom twice one by one during their stay after being produced in court. It is unusual, to say the least.”

He said the City Courts had the common washrooms facility both for the UTPs and the visitors. There were serious doubts that the four suspects were transferred these stuff through the washrooms, added the official.

Nearly half a dozen armed men lobbed hand grenades inside the City Courts building on Saturday and gunned down a police constable before getting their four aides freed, who allegedly belonged to a militant outfit Jundallah. Though one of them later died during the encounter with the police, the four suspects were facing a total of 11 cases including three consecutive bomb blasts on 8th, 9th and 10th of Muharram-ul-Haram including a deadly attack on main Ashura procession on M. A. Jinnah Road in December 2009 that killed more than 40 people.

The police registered two separate FIRs against the four suspects and their unidentified aides for escape after attacking the policemen. An FIR (82/2010) was registered by the City Courts police station under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code along with a Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

Similarly, the Risala police registered an FIR (412/2010) under Sections 324, 353 and 34 of the PPC along with Sections 3 and 5 of the Explosive Act for a police encounter that killed one of the suspects Murad Shah.

The authorities confirmed overnight raids in different areas across the city to trace possible links of the suspects freed and the attackers, who planned the deadly attack. However, after fresh findings by the investigations, the probe seemed to be moving in two directions with different objectives that included trace of the suspects and their collaboration if any with the law-enforcers.

”We believe in self accountability,” said capital city police officer (CCPO) Waseem Ahmed. “We have already arrested three police officials for their negligence in making proper security arrangements. It has yet to be established from where the objects found were brought in to the four suspects and the investigation team would definitely look into this matter.”