Police on Wednesday announced the arrest of one individual and released information on three Turkish Cypriots, alleged to be people smugglers, who are wanted in the ongoing investigation into the case which lead to the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old Pakistani national in Potamia.

The arrested man has been named as Alain Martial Tchantchou, 39, from Cameroon. The man was arrested shortly before 11am police reported.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Cypriot men, who are still at large, have been identified as Atilla Alaslan, 22, Coskun Alaslan, 31, and Halil Alaslan, 62. Police have published their photos and are asking for any member of the public with information to contact the Nicosia police station, at 22-802222, their nearest police station, or the citizen’s hotline, at 1460.

Halil and Coskun Alaslan have both publicly denied all wrongdoing and spoke to news website Giynik outside a Turkish Cypriot police station in the Nicosia district village of Trachoni.

There, Halil Alaslan accused the police of “slandering us”, and said he and his son had travelled from the village of Louroujina, where they live, to the Trachoni police station to find out what was going on.

Coskun Alaslan said the police are “prejudiced against me” because of an incident which occurred in 2012 in which Greek Cypriot policemen had crossed the Green Line into the village of Louroujina to chase him, and were themselves arrested by the Turkish Cypriot police.

He later told newspaper Yeni Duzen that he has an alibi, saying that he was in the eastern Nicosia suburb of Mia Milia with his wife at the time, while also criticising both the Greek Cypriot police and the media for the impact the situation may have on his family.

This is a shameful, serious crime. I have three children. They will go to school tomorrow, what if they are asked if their father is like this? I have made all the necessary applications. I am complaining about all the news sites,” he said.

The suspects are wanted for offenses related to attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a felony, and aiding and abetting illegal entry, transit and residence in the territory of the Republic.

Elsewhere, police association (Sak) has defended the handling of the case by the force after pushback in the media and from politicians. The union said the wholesale condemnation of the police over the case had been unwarranted, and expressed support for the decision not to suspend officers involved in the incident, as “the relevant investigations [had been] launched and are ongoing.”

The exact circumstances under which the Pakistani man was shot, died, and was subsequently transported, are the focus of the ongoing investigation with the latest identification of the four suspects. One of them was the driver of a rental vehicle, in which the 24-year-old Pakistani was transported, and which had also been located police confirmed. Authorities identified the car hire company, the vehicle, and its driver, from camera footage.

The rental vehicle was one of three which had been shot at by anti-poaching officers around 8pm on January 6, in their effort to halt an illegal migrant smuggling operation.

The deceased man was found with a wound from a 9mm bullet in his shoulder blade, which ballistic testing had confirmed as matching a police-issue firearm.

The effort to locate the people smugglers would proceed with the cooperation of the Turkish Cypriot authorities, police spokeswoman Kyriaki Lambrianidou earlier said on CyBC.

Following the incident in Potamia, the Pakistani had been taken, dead or alive, to a field in Nicosia, at a 20km distance, where his body was found later, two hours after officers had fired at the rental vehicle’s tyres in the buffer zone.

The appointment of a second medical examiner to carry out another autopsy on the body has been requested by the CID with the decision being the prerogative of independent criminal investigator Ninos Kekkos, assigned by the attorney general to the case.

The first medical examiner was suspended for ruling out foul play at the onset, and for his delayed determination that the man’s wound had been caused by a gun, rather than a sharp stone found near the body.

The four day delay caused furore in the media and from political quarters which immediately accused police authorities of a cover-up, and demanded the resignation of Justice Minister Marios Harsiotis.

Early reports stated that the Pakistani man’s body had been discovered stripped to the waist with no traces of blood, which lead to speculation that someone had tried to take care of the man’s wound. The body was reportedly found with his passport, near a bag and a jacket.

Police allegedly had described officers being rammed into by the people-smugglers in their vehicles, resulting in damage to one police car and injury to an officer who had exited his car. Police also reported firing four shots at the tyres of the smugglers’ vehicles and casings corroborating this statement were recovered from the scene.