Youth kidnapped from Karachi’s DHA weeks ago was killed by friends: police

• DIG claims suspects took body to Hub in victim’s car and torched it
• Says Balochistan police confirmed recovery of charred body and vehicle

KARACHI: Police on Friday claimed that a kidnapped youth was murdered by his own friends who stuffed the body in the trunk of his car and torched it in the Hub area.

Mustafa Amir, 23, was kidnapped on Jan 6 from the DHA area and two weeks later, his family had received a ransom call. Since then, his whereabouts were not known. During investigations, the police arrested Mustafa’s friend Armaghan after an encounter but failed to get his physical remand for interrogation.

Speaking at a press conference, CIA DIG Muqaddus Haider said that the police arrested Armaghan’s friend, Sheraz aka Shavez Bukhari, who disclosed that Mustafa had been murdered and his body, along with his car, were torched in Hub.

The DIG said that the Balochistan police also confirmed that they had recovered a charred body in a torched car on Jan 12 and handed it over to the Edhi Foundation after completing the required medico-legal formalities for burial.

Giving details about the murder, he said that Sheraz revealed that he and Armaghan had called Mustafa on the night of Jan 6 at the DHA residence of Armaghan. When he arrived, they had a scuffle and he and Armaghan tied Mustafa and beat him up. Armaghan shot him dead at around 11pm.

Later, they packed the body in the trunk of Amir’s own car and drove it to the Dureji area in Hub where they set the vehicle on fire, he said, adding that they initially travelled by foot and later used another vehicle to return to Karachi.

The DIG said that on Feb 8, the police conducted a raid in DHA and arrested Armaghan after a shootout that led to bullet injuries to a DSP and police constable. He said that during a search of his residence, evidence for the case was obtained such as a cell phone of the deceased and blood stains, which were sent for matching.

To a question, the CIA chief told Dawn that the murder appeared to be an outcome of ‘some dispute’ between the friends.

He said the suspects had demanded ransom to ‘mislead’ the investigators.

He said now they would exhume the body of the victim whose DNA samples would be taken for matching.

DIG Haider also told media that they would approach the judiciary to get remand of the accused Armaghan in light of new evidence.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2025