Pakistani police on Friday announced the arrest of a 22 year-old law student, son of a dismissed Army officer, in connection with the killing of a senior prosecutor who was handling sensitive cases including the Benazir Bhutto assassination and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
Abdullah Umar, a student of the International Islamic University of Islamabad and the son of former Pakistan Army Colonel Khalid Abbasi, who faced court martial in 2003 for links with al-Qaeda and was dismissed from service, Dawn reported.
The report further said Umar too had links with al-Qaeda.
Islamabad Police chief Bin Yamin Khan confirmed the arrest of Umar, and said police had busted a terrorist network that was involved in several attacks in Rawalpindi and the federal capital.
Other officials said they had uncovered evidence linking Umar to the assassination of prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali in Islamabad on May 3, 2013.
Reports said Umar was paralysed below the waist due to a bullet fired by the prosecutor’s bodyguard that had hit his spine.
The interrogation of two suspects, traced with the help of fingerprints found in a taxi used in the murder, led the police to Umar.
Some media reports said Umar was also involved in an attack on a mosque in Rawalpindi frequented by army officers and their relatives in December 2009 which killed nearly 40 people.
Mr. Ali, who was handling the Benazir Bhutto assassination case and Mumbai attacks case for the Federal Investigation Agency, was gunned down by unidentified armed men near his home in Islamabad.
His relatives and colleagues said he had spoken about receiving threats from unidentified persons.
