ISLAMABAD - Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Tuesday said that the authorities were close to identifying one of the suspects involved in physically assaulting journalist Asad Toor in Islamabad last week.
Addressing a press conference following his one-day visit to Kuwait, the minister said that Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and police were investigating the assault case.
“NADRA is trying to identify finger prints of the three suspects and hopefully, it would give its (analysis) report in a day or two,” he said adding that photos of the three suspects would be published in newspapers in next three to four days if their finger prints could not be identified.
“I am sure that we would reach close to the facts in Asad Toor case,” said Sheikh Rasheed. “I have called the IG (Islamabad police chief), NADRA and FIA (in connection with the case).” He said that the receptionist of the residential apartments, where the journalist was residing, in his statement has told the police that he did not stop the suspects because they were already frequent visitors of the building.
On the night of June 25, three unknown suspects had broken into the apartment of the journalist, tied him up, and brutally tortured him.
“It is important to arrest the culprits because some people are targeting our sensitive agencies for no reasons only to please their foreign masters,” the interior minister said. He said that such critics who are alleging the country’s sensitive security agencies for vested interests would be silenced if they succeeded to reach culprit. Such people are condemnable who are unaware how Pakistan’s image is being harmed in the eye of the world due to their character, he added.
He said that there was footage available that the suspects had approached Inter-Junction Principal Road connecting Rawalpindi and Islamabad after torturing the journalist in Sector F-11, an upscale area of the capital.
The minister informed the media that the government wanted to give latest equipment to FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing and was making fresh recruitments there to fulfil the shortage of manpower. “We also want to strengthen NADRA.” He said that FIA has received 36,000 complaints of online crimes during his stint as interior minister and out of these, 5,355 inquiries have been completed and case have been registered against 3,99 suspects.
Responding to a question why most of such cases of attacks on journalists remain unresolved, the minister agreed that there should be a policy to investigate such cases. “In the absence of such any policy, government’s image is questioned and an issue of human rights arises and agencies are defamed.”
About TV anchor Hamid Mir who was taken off air after he made a fiery speech at a protest rally of journalists calling for accountability for repeated attacks on media persons, the minister said that he did not order to take the anchor off air. “I am neither on talking terms with him for the last many years nor I have ever attended his show during this period (as a guest),” he said adding that he would not attend his show life time. He said that he was unaware of any case being registered against Mir. He also stressed said that no journalist was being placed on Exit Control List (ECL) or Black List, both no fly lists.
Sheikh Rasheed said that Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of opposition parties, has lost the ground and is only playing up in the media. There were only two opposition parties, PML-N and JUI-F, part of the alliance contrary to the claim that 10 parties represent it, he said and challenged the journalists to name all these parties if they know.
Giving a briefing about his visit to Kuwait, he said that Gulf state has opened family and business visas for Pakistan besides visas for Pakistani doctors and those concerned with petroleum industry. As many 425 Pakistani doctors would leave for Kuwait this week, he said adding that Kuwait leadership also wanted to issue visas to those Pakistanis related to construction industry.
He said that the issuance of family visas of Kuwait for Pakistanis was the problem for the last 12 years and this issue has resolved during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government. He said that only six Pakistani prisoners languishing in jails of Kuwait wanted to come back to the country out of 52 inmates of the country there. After a decade-long ban, Kuwait on last Sunday had agreed to resume granting visas to Pakistani families, skilled work force and businessmen. The decision was taken during interior minister’s meeting with Kuwaiti prime minister.