Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has on Tuesday (today) authorities were close to discover one of the suspects responsible for allegedly torturing journalist Asad Ali Toor at his Islamabad apartment last week.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Sheikh Rashid said that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and police were escorting a probe into the incident.

“The fingerprints will be identified in a day or two,” he said.

He stated that the receptionist who had recorded his statement said that he did not stop the culprits because they had visited in the past. “I have called the IG, Nadra and FIA […] we are close to identifying one of the culprits,” the Minister added.

He said that it was important to expose the culprits as some individuals “unnecessarily” target the country’s security agencies to please their “foreign rulers”.

“I think that if we are successful in reaching these culprits, all those who blame our agencies will be silenced,” he said.

He went on to add, “There needed to be a policy in this regard as such incidents raise question marks about the government’s performance and also become a human rights issue. ”

“Also those targeting agencies, but have separate agendas, also get off scot-free,” he said.

Sheikh Rashid added that a policy is needed to punish those involved in such crimes.

On the other hand, Sheikh Rashid also issued remarks about his recent visit to Kuwait which has decided to resume granting visas to Pakistani families and businessmen. “It was a highly successful tour,” he said.

He added that the Kuwaiti prime minister had also expressed willingness to issue visas for the construction sector.

“Similarly, 30pc of the three million visas Saudi Arabia will give out will go to Pakistanis,” he said.

Commenting on the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the minister said that only Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PML-N remained in the alliance. “I don’t know about the others. It is done,” he said.

“Two have left and two remain. It is completely defunct but everyone is playing it up on the media,” he said.

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