RAWALPINDI, May 21: The police have requested the Interpol for the issuance of ‘red notices’ for Taji Khokhar, the brother of former deputy speaker of the National Assembly who had been spotted in the United Arab Emirates and was wanted for the murder of a woman.

According to a source close to the investigation, Mr Khokhar had been in an American hospital in Dubai where two fingers of his left foot had to be amputated by doctors due to diabetes.

The source said Taji Khokhar had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case pertaining to the murder of Sabira Bibi, and had been nominated as a murder suspect in the FIR.

However, he had been placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) in the first week of April instead of being restricted from traveling abroad soon after the murder took place in August.

City Police Officer Abdul Razzaq Cheema said a request for obtaining red notices against Taji Khokhar had been sent to the Interpol though the interior ministry, and soon the wanted suspect would be brought back to Pakistan.

According to the police, three of the murder suspects (Taji Khokhar, Multani Khan and Hassan Shah) are yet to be arrested and a progress report has to be submitted to the Supreme Court on June 3.

Five murder suspects had been arrested from different parts of Rawalpindi after the police launched raids. However, efforts by the police were underway to bring the main accused back from Dubai.

“Taji Khokhar’s location had been traced to Dubai, and five other accused identified in the FIR have already been arrested,” a senior police officer said adding that, “He (Taji Khokhar) would be brought back to Pakistan before June 3.”

The source revealed that Taji Khokhar may return to Pakistan and join the murder investigation. “Soon after he is discharged from the hospital, he is expected to join the investigation. If Mr Khokhar fails to return, a police team would be sent to Dubai to arrest him and bring him back,” the police official said.

He also revealed that police was confident Taji Khokar would join the investigation himself, and efforts in this regard had been underway.

Ms Sabira, the wife of Raja Yaqoob and the victim in the said case, had been gunned down at the site of her disputed land in Dhoke Gangal on August 17, when a commission under Raja Saim-ul-Haq Satti, appointed by Civil Judge Sardar Hamid, was trying to resolve the land dispute in the presence of the man who had allegedly grabbed it.

Raja Yaqoob had accused 13 people as murder suspects in the FIR registered with the Airport police.

Of these 13, five have been arrested and sent to the jail, while five others obtained pre-arrest bails from the court. The hearing of their case would be held on May 22. If their bail is rejected by the court on Wednesday (May 22), the five would be arrested.

Police raids are underway to arrest the two remaining suspects, identified as Multani Khan and Hassan Shah.

Raids were conducted at Misrial Road where they lived, but they had already fled.

A special team led by Deputy Inspector General of Police (Investigation) Omer Akhtar Lalika had been formed to investigate the much published murder case after the Supreme Court took a suo motu notice of the case.