Probe points to Indian hand in Tamba’s killing: Naqvi

LAHORE: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Monday initial investigation into the murder of Amir Sarfraz Tamba, who had allegedly killed Indian terrorist Sarabjit Singh in 2013, pointed towards India’s involvement in his killing.

Talking to journalists at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) office here, Naqvi said police were probing Tamba’s murder, adding they suspected India’s involvement in it.“India was involved in four other killings also prior to this. Nevertheless, it will not be suitable to say anything conclusively until the investigation is complete but this murder is on the same pattern,” the minister said.

On Sunday, police said two motorcycle riders fatally shot Tamba in the limits of Islampura police station, adding the victim was shifted to hospital but he succumbed to his wounds.Police registered a case against the unidentified bikers on the complaint of Tamba’s brother Junaid Sarfraz, cordoned off the area and started searching for the culprits with the help of CCTV footage.

In April 2013, Tamba and Mudasir Munir allegedly attacked Sarabjit Singh with bricks and iron rods in Kot Lakhpat jail. Singh was sentenced to death for a series of bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990. On December 14, 2018, a sessions court in Lahore acquitted Tamba and Munir of the charge of killing Singh and ordered their release after all witnesses retracted their statements.

Tamba, 45, was unmarried and lived with his brothers in a five-marla house in Islampura. He was a spices dealer.It may be mentioned here that during a televised interview on April 5, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had admitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s policy of orchestrating killings in Pakistan.

He said India will enter Pakistan to kill anyone who escapes over the border after trying to carry out terrorist activities in the country.The Indian minister’s comments had come after the British publication, The Guardian, revealed in a report that the Indian government had killed about 20 people in Pakistan since 2020 as part of a broader plan to eliminate terrorists residing on foreign soil.