SUKKUR/DADU: The Shaheed Benazirabad police on Friday claimed to have arrested the main suspect named in the Feb 2020 murder case of a senior journalist, Aziz Memon, in a raid on his hideout in a desert area of the district.

The body of Aziz Memon, a senior reporter associated with Daily Kawish and KTN TV channel, was found floating in an irrigation channel in Mehrabpur town of Naushahro Feroze district on Feb 16, 2020. The incident had sparked province-wide protests by the journalist community in the following months. Sindhi nationalist groups and almost all politicalparties had joined the protest.

Initially it was taken as a drowning case but a few weeks after the incident, the Mehrabpur police had to declare it a murder case amid immense public pressure.

Eventually a murder case (FIR No. 22/20) was registered on the complaint of deceased journalist`s brother, Hafeezur Rehman, and proper investigation on these lines was started.

The police did find a clue to suspects but could not locate, Mushtaq Sahito, believed to be the main suspect. They, however, arrested his six suspected associates in the crime and also collected evidence. Sahito`s name as the main suspect surfaced during interrogation with thearrested suspects but he went underground.

The home department constituted a joint investigation team (JIT) comprising officials of several intelligence and law-enforcement agencies in 2020 for further investigation. Additional Inspector General Ghulam Nabi Memon headed the JIT.

It was concluded that Aziz Memon was murdered under a premeditated plan. He was called to a particular place in Mehrabpur for the coverage of a protest demonstration and when he along with a cameraman was present there, the suspects strangled him using cable of the movie camera. The journalist`s body was then thrown into the water channel.The investigation was completed in the same year but Sahito could not be arrested. After failing to locate him, the home department notified a head money of Rs1 million on him.

On Friday, SSP Ameer Saud Magsi disclosed arrest of Sahito in a raid conducted on his hideout in a deserted area.

He told a press conference in his Nawabshah office that the raid was conducted by a joint team headed by Kazi Ahmed SHO Saifullah Bughio, Daur SHO Maqsood Ahmed Channa and incharge of Kazi Ahmed CIA Centre Mubeen Ahmed Parihar.

SSP Magsi said that the raid was planned on a tip-off about presence of Mushtaq Sahito at aspecified place.

Confirming the breakthrough in the case, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the main suspect, Mushtaq Sahito, was arrested after he had been on the run for two-and-a-half years. The raiding team used 4×4 vehicles and camels to reach the hideout located along the district`s boundary, he said.

The minister commended performance of the Shaheed Benazirabad district police and the raiding team.

Speaking to a private TV channel, he rejected reports about pressure being exerted on the heirs of Aziz Memon for the withdrawal of the case.