Pakistan police recover body of killer of 26/11 prosecutor

Pakistan police have recovered a corpse of a man from a house here, and believes it belongs to the killer of Mumbai attack case public prosecutor, according to a media report.

The recent raid on the house of the relatives of Kashmiri separatist leader Asiya Andrabi here was distantly linked to it, according to the report.

Police found the body on Tuesday from the same house where a car laden with explosives was recovered on August 31 and they believe it belongs to the killer of Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali, the FIA prosecutor in the Mumbai attack and the Benazir Bhutto murder cases, The Dawn daily reported.

The house belonged to Hammad Adil, who during interrogation, confessed to the assassination of the lawyer.

He has already confessed to the killing of former Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, the paper said.

According to Adil, the body was of Haris Khan, one of the four people involved in the assassination.

Ali was assassinated on May 3 while going to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Headquarters from his house.

Four armed men intercepted his car near Dak Khana bus stop and opened fire on him with 9mm and 30-bore pistols.

Constable Farman Ali, the prosecutor's guard belonging to the Frontier Corps, also fired at the attackers. As a result, an attacker's cellphone and pistol fell on the road.

Quoting Adil, the police said that during the ambush, Abdullah Omar Abbasi and Haris Khan were also injured, but they managed to escape.

The two injured were first taken to one Gilani Manzil in the capital where they were given treatment, the report said.

Later, Abbasi was shifted to the Quaid-i-Azam International Hospital, from where he was arrested on June 13.

On the other hand, Khan remained at Gilani Manzil for a few days and was treated by Syed Mujahid Gilani, the nephew of Dukhtaran-i-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi, the paper said.

However, due to excessive blood loss, Khan succumbed to injuries a few days later. His body was then shifted to Adil's house where it was buried in the lawn.

Yesterday, the police, accompanied by an assistant commissioner, a magistrate and a medico-legal officer, went to Adil's house and dug out the body. The remains were then taken to a hospital for legal process, including autopsy and DNA test, to establish identification.

Currently, all four people involved in the killing have been identified namely Omar Abbasi, Khan, Adil and Tanveer (the mastermind).

Earlier, the taxi used in the ambush was recovered and fingerprints led to the arrest of two people including Tanveer, a native of Malakwal. The two then disclosed the location of Abbasi at the hospital, which led to his arrest.

Security agencies had recovered a large cache of weapons and explosives from Gilani Manzil recently during a raid.

Pakistani authorities have launched a hunt for several of Andrabi's nephews, suspected of having links with Taliban and al-Qaeda, after they fled during the raid, media reports said.

Syed Shoiab Andrabi, the son of Andrabi's brother Zia Ul Haq, was arrested during the raid on the house on the outskirts of Islamabad.