News
London police make first arrest in Dr Imran Farooq murder case
By Murtaza Ali Shah
LONDON: In a major breakthrough, Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command detectives investigating the murder of Dr Imran Farooq arrested a man on suspicion of conspiracy to murder the Pakistani politician on Thursday 16 September 2010.
The 52-year-old British Citizen of Pakistani origin was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport at approx 10:10 AM on Monday morning after landing at the airport on a flight from Canada. The detectives lay in waiting for the man whose travel trail was being monitored for a long time. The detectives were interviewing him on Monday at a West London Police station where he was in custody.
Dr Farooq was on his way home from work when he was attacked outside his home in Green Lane, Edgware, by a group of Pakistani looking men who killed him using a kitchen knife and bricks. A post-mortem gave his cause of death as multiple stab wounds and blunt trauma to the head.
A five and a half inch-bladed kitchen knife and a house brick used in the attack were recovered at the scene. A spokesman at the Metropolitan Police told that detectives from “the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command remain committed to finding those responsible”.
The detectives believe that Dr Imran Farooq’s murder would have required careful planning and would have required help from other people, some of whom may have provided assistance or information unwittingly.
Again on Monday, the Met Police said that it’s interested in speaking to anyone who was asked for information about Dr Farooq and his routine, or who was asked to help buy items such as knives similar to those used in the murder, or mobile phones around the time of the attack. The police believe that the items used in the murder were bought from local areas in Edgware prior to the attack and killing of the former convener of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
The mobile sims used were not registered on any names but the police has connected the dozens of numbers called in Pakistan, London and few other countries using the sims which were shut down soon after the brutal killing.
The police has offered a reward of up to £20,000 for anyone providing information leading to the identification, arrest, and prosecution of those responsible for Dr Farooq's murder.
Sources have told Geo News that more arrests are expected soon as the detectives have received important new leads in recent days. Only a few days ago, two residential addresses were searched in London by the detectives for 55 hours non-stop. The police have so far questioned eight people under caution.
Courtesy www.geo.tv