Staff Reporter Islamabad
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Tuesday said that authorities were close to tracing one of the suspects responsible for physically assaulting journalist Asad Ali Toor in Islamabad last week.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the minister said that the the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and police were conducting an inquiry into the incident.
“The fingerprints will be identified in a day or two,” he said, adding that ads would be published in the newspapers if authorities were unsuccessful in tracing the suspects.
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.”
He said that it was necessary to catch 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, adding that such individuals were unaware of the damage they cause to the country’s image in the eyes of the world.
Responding to a question from a reporter, the minister reiterated that Nadra was conducting a fingerprint analysis the results of which would be out soon.
