Police release sketches of Ahmad Noorani attack suspects

ISLAMABAD: Police on Wednesday submitted the initial report of the attack on senior The News journalist Ahmad Noorani to the Interior Ministry and also released the sketches of two suspected attackers.

The notice issued by the Aabpara Police says that a prize of Rs200,000 will be given to anyone providing information on the suspects and the informants' names would be kept secret.

The pictures of six suspects, extracted from CCTV footage obtained from Safe City Project, have also been sent to NADRA for identification.

Noorani was assaulted on the federal capital's Khayabane Suharwardy road on October 27, when his car was stopped by three men travelling on a motorcycle near Zero Point Interchange while he was on his way home in Islamabad from Rawalpindi.

Why Noorani was attacked

From Kamran Khan to Umar Cheema and from Matiullah Jan to Ahmad Noorani, attempts had been made to silence voices of journalists

The three men got down from their unmarked motorcycle after chasing down Noorani's car while another three, who were standing where the car was stopped with another unmarked motorcycle, joined in and severely beat up Noorani and his driver with iron rods after throwing out the keys from the ignition.

The attackers sped away on the two bikes, with no licence plates, towards Zero Point after onlookers began gathering at the site and traffic started coming to a halt on the busy road.

The journalist was taken to the hospital and is now out of danger.

The attack was strongly condemned by journalists, rights activists and political leaders.

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal visited Noorani on Tuesday and said that he is personally supervising the investigation of the attack.