Sunday, September 20, 2009
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: The capital police raided the house of the owner of a private security agency that provides security to the US embassy in Islamabad and its diplomats, and seized a large cache of arms and ammunition in the wee hours of Saturday.
Captain (retd) Syed Ali Jaffer Zaidi, who
owns and runs the security agency in the name of Inter-Risk Security (Private) Limited, escaped and could not be caught during the raid on his F-6/1 residence.
The arms and ammunition were, however, dumped in the servant quarter of the official residence of an officer of a civilian led top spy agency, the sources disclosed. Meanwhile, some sources claimed that the Ministry of Interior had revoked the license of Inter-Risk.
Zaidi, whose company provides security to embassies of USA, France, Brazil, Japan and some European countries, was reportedly indulging in suspicious and unlawful activities, the police said, quoting intelligence agencies.
Police authorities have recommended the cancellation of the license of the Inter-Risk Security Company for violating the terms and conditions as laid down for private security agencies. The recommendations have been sent to the chief commissioner, Islamabad, and also to the Ministry of Interior, the sources disclosed.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Islamabad, Tahir Alam Khan, confirmed to this correspondent the report about recovery of arms and ammunition from Capt (retd) Zaidi’s house.
The SSP also confirmed that the police would ask the authorities to cancel the license of Inter-Risk Security Company.
Meanwhile, police sources said that a joint team of the Capital police, headed by SP (CID) Kamran Adil who was also holding additional charge of SP (City), raided the house (65/2-E, Street-35, F-6/1) of Capt (retd) Zaidi with area magistrate Kamran Cheema at 2.15 am and searched his house thoroughly. DSP (Rural Circle) Jamil Hashmi, ASP (City Circle) Muntazir Mehdi, SHO (Kohsar) Inspector Rana Muhammad Akram, SHO (Aabpara) Inspector Abdul Majid and large contingent of armed police were part of the raiding party.
The police sources said that the house of Capt (retd) Zaidi was searched in the presence of his sons, Syed Hassan Ali Zaidi and Syed Muhammad Raza Zaidi, under the supervision of area magistrate and some quantity of arms and ammunition, including 7mm rifles and pistols hidden in different parts of the house, were recovered. The police arrested two suspects, Tauqir Hassan, son of Saif Ali, resident of Narowal, and Muhammad Khan, son of Sher Zaman, resident of Fateh Jang, from the house but Capt (retd) Zaidi managed to escape.
Police sources said that the arrested suspects disclosed that Capt (retd) Zaidi had dumped a huge quantity of arms and ammunition in the rented servant quarter of the house of a serving officer of a federal government intelligence agency. On the tip-off, the police party raided the servant quarter and recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition, including 61 Repeaters of 12-bore, 9 pistols of 32-bore, 7mm rifles and a 2-bore pistol with thousands of bullets of different calibers.
The police kept searching the house and servant quarter till 5.15 of Saturday morning, the police said.
Kohsar police have registered a case against Capt (retd) Zaidi under Sections 13/20/65 of Arms Ordinance and 461, 471 and 420 PPC and sent teams to hunt down the prime accused.
The FIR (#379) said that sons of Capt (retd) Zaidi could not produce licenses of the prohibited and non-prohibited bore arms on demand.
Earlier, the Capital city police conducted a raid on a secret training centre being run by Capt (retd) Zaidi under the cover of Care & Craft, an automobile workshop located in front of Harmain Flour Mills.
SP (Rural Zone) Tahir Ayub Khan confirmed that the training centre was being run secretly.
Meanwhile, the police sources said that the police could not recover any arms from the training centre as training was suspended for unknown reasons. The sources said that most modern facilities were provided to the personnel under training. They added that sophisticated arms were provided to under training people during shooting practice at a firing range near Sihala.
The Ministry of Interior has issued directives to the law enforcing agencies to monitor the activities of security agencies allegedly involved in suspicious and unlawful activities. Meanwhile, intelligence agencies have provided a list to the establishment, including Inter Risk Security and DynCorp, with recommendations to cancel the permits, an intelligence agency source told The News.
Meanwhile, Islamabad Traffic Police issued a press release on Saturday about the seizure of arms cache. It said that the raid was conducted jointly by police and administration. The press release said that most of the rifles were tampered with.
AP adds: US Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said the US contract with Inter-Risk to provide security at the embassy and consulates took effect this year. It is believed to be the first US contract for the firm, said Snelsire, who did not have a figure for its amount.
“Our understanding is they obtained licenses with whatever they brought into the country to meet the contractual needs,” he said.
Online adds: The raid came after it was revealed that the Interior Ministry had issued licenses of highly sophisticated assault rifles to the Inter-Risk company with prime minister’s special permission.
US Ambassador Anne W Patterson had held meetings with Prime Minister Gilani and the Interior Minister Rehman Malik for approval of the licenses.
Although, the weapons are owned by the US embassy, they are to be carried by Inter-Risk personnel. The Inter-Risk had signed a contract with the US embassy in April to provide security to American employees of the US embassy in Pakistan.
Source:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=24627
