QUETTA: The Quetta Court has granted bail to Haji Sadiq Achakzai, the prime accused in the murder of Deputy Collector Dr. Abdul Qudoos Sheikh.
However, he is on remand in FIR lodged by Customs for smuggling. It may be mentioned here that MCC Preventive Karachi had lodged two FIRs against Haji Sadiq, and two MCC Preventive Karachi officers have reached Quetta to take custody of Haji Sadiq.
Haji Sadiq is a notorious smuggler, who has developed a smuggling network across the country. He also has connections with senior Customs officers as well as politicians and other agencies.
It is worth mentioning that after the arrest of Haji Sadiq, his associates claiming to be traders blocked Quetta-Chaman highway as a protest and demanded release of Haji Sadiq.
A PTI MPA Mubeen Khilji met with protestors and accepted their demands that raids would not be conducted on smugglers’ warehouses and Haji Sadiq would be released.
To recall when Arsalan Subuctageen was Collector Gwadar, and he launched a crackdown on smugglers, Subuctageen along with his entire team were transferred on the instructions of Chief Minister Baluchistan.
Customs officials are of the view that arrest of Haji Sadiq in murder case of Deputy Collector Dr. Abdul Qudoos Sheikh was a setup and Police had only arrested Haji Sadiq to protect him.
The Police did not properly investigate the case and weakened the prosecution. Sources said Abdul Qudoos was attacked while he was returning after seizing a smuggled tiles consignment adding the driver of vehicle had called Haji Sadiq and explained him of the situation in Pashto. Abdul Qudoos did not know Pashto. But, a sepoy along with Abdul Qudoos had listened to the conversation of vehicle’s driver and Haji Sadiq. Later, the sepoy was also killed. Poliuce completely ignored this aspect and the driver of the vehicles carrying smuggled tiles was no investigated at all.