Dr Naeemuddin Khattak was recently killed in what appears to be a religiously-motivated crime, and the Peshawar police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested a man who allegedly shot the Ahmadi professor.
Dr Naeemuddin was a zoology professor at Superior Science College Peshawar. According to his brother, the two had been travelling home on separate vehicles when two thugs on a motorcycle opened fire on the professor’s car in the Wazir Bagh area. He received five shots and died on the spot.
Mubasir, the arrested suspect, is a “close relative” of the late professor, said police officials.
Two suspects were directly named in the First Information Report (FIR) by Khattak’s family. Previously, Saad Farooq, a colleague of Khattak, had been the prime suspect in the murder, as he had reportedly had a heated argument with the slain professor over a religious issue a day before the murder.
Police official Moharrar Ashoor Khan told a local news outlet that a police team raided a house in Lala Rukh Colony in Syed Hassan Pir area and arrested Mubasir.
Farooq, a lecturer at the University of Agriculture, Peshawar, is the other suspect and remains at large.
Mubasir was still being questioned, said another police official. He will be presented before a judicial magistrate on Wednesday for obtaining his physical remand.
Khan added that the initial investigation indicates the professor was slain over his religious beliefs.
The body was given to the family after the post-mortem and laid to rest.
This was the third murder of a member of the Ahmadi community in Peshawar since July 29, when Tahir Naseem, an American national, was shot dead by a teenager in a court. On August 12, Meraj Ahmed, an Ahmadi trader, was shot dead by attackers in the Gulbahar area.
On September 10, a mob besieged the residence of an Ahmadi in the Phandu area of the city and the family was rescued by police. However, one of the family members was arrested and charged with blasphemy.
