GUJRAT: The Punjab Police Crime Control Department (CCD) has extradited seven murder suspects from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in a coordinated operation carried out with the assistance of Interpol, officials said on Monday.
According to a spokesman for the Gujranwala CCD, the arrests were made following directives issued by Punjab CCD Chief Sohail Zafar Chatha. A special operations team, led by Inspector Khalid Nawaz Varya, travelled to Dubai after Interpol issued red warrants for the suspects. Local authorities in the UAE subsequently detained the individuals and handed them over to Pakistani officials.
The spokesman said the suspects had been wanted in separate murder cases across various districts of Punjab, some of them evading arrest for decades. Among them was Ghazanfar Iqbal, a resident of Iqbalnagar in Kot Momin tehsil of Sargodha district, who had been sought by police since 1995 for allegedly killing a citizen before fleeing abroad.
Extradited criminals had long been wanted to the Punjab police, says spokesman CCD. https://t.co/u7m9WkSntY
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Another suspect, Zubair Khan from Judicial Colony, Rawalpindi, was also repatriated to face charges in a murder case registered against him. Officials said Umar Farooq of Khubeki, Gujranwala district, had been accused of fatally shooting his brother over a property dispute before escaping from the country. He has now been taken into custody following extradition.
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In addition, three others — Eman Waris Butt of Chak Qazi, Sialkot; Naimatullah of Jampur in Rajanpur district; and Zulfiqar Ali of Dunyapur — were returned to Pakistan to face murder charges lodged in their respective districts.
The CCD spokesperson noted that the operation reflected the growing cooperation between Pakistani authorities and Interpol in locating and apprehending suspects abroad. He added that the responsibility for handling extraditions of wanted criminals from overseas had been assigned to the Gujranwala CCD zone by the Punjab Police several months earlier.
Officials said the suspects would be handed over to the respective district police units for further legal proceedings. The CCD stated that efforts were under way to pursue additional fugitives believed to be residing overseas, as part of the department’s broader campaign to bring long-sought offenders to justice.
