Two policemen arrested for 'abduction, murder' of Lahore youth

LAHORE: Two police personnel were arrested on charges of abducting and murdering a youth, identified as Farrukh Arshad, in Lahore who were also facing accusations of staging the latter's death as suicide.

Superintendent Police (SP) Model Town Akhlaq Ullah Tarar confirmed the development in a press conference, saying that Arshad and one of the suspected cops — Constable Muazzam — had a meeting at Barkat market before the former's murder.

Detailing the incident, Tarar said the accused secretly rented a flat in the Ichhra area. He further said that the accused policemen demanded ransom after abducting Arshad who was taken to the rented flat.

"The suspects chased Arshad when he tried to run away from the flat," the police officer said, adding that the abductee jumped from the residential plaza’s roof and died on the spot.

In an apparent bid to sabotage the investigation, Muazzam threw 33-year-old Arshad's mobile phone and wallet far away from the crime scene.

Some media reports suggested that three suspects were nominated in the Lahore School of Economics alumni's "abduction and murder", including a Garden Town police Constable Muazzam Bhinder, a dismissed officer of the Dolphin Squad Hamza, and a Township Police Station's officer Ejaz.

It further stated that one of the suspected cops, a Dolphin Squad's constable was still at large.

It was initially reported that the citizen had died after allegedly falling from a flat’s rooftop.

The victim's family alleged that Arshad was "killed" and his body was thrown away from the roof to give the impression of a suicide, the reports claimed.

The Lahore Police had launched a thorough probe into the citizen's death and came to a conclusion by declaring the aforementioned cops as suspects in the case.