KARACHI: Police claim suspects in double murder case held
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Nov 27: A private security guard, his 15-year-old wife and his elder brother’s wife were arrested on Tuesday for their alleged involvement in a couple’s murder in Surjani Town on Nov 21.
Thirty-four-year-old Kashif Zamir, a bank employee, and his four-month pregnant wife Mehwish were found shot dead in their house in Khuda Ki Basti last Wednesday. The couple, who were first cousins, had been living in a rented house since their arranged marriage 10 months ago.
Investigation officer Inspector Akbar Narejo told Dawn that he had arrested the suspects on a tip-off by ‘a special police informer’. He said security guard Asadullah, his wife Rashida, his younger brother Kaleemullah and sister-in-law Shakila were involved in the double murder.
“The suspects confessed to having killed the couple after the preliminary interrogation,” he said.
The investigator said Kashif and Asadullah became friends when the latter was posted as a security guard at the bank.
Quoting the statement of Asadullah, the investigator said that Kashif had helped him in his marriage around 15 months ago in his hometown Jalalpur in Multan. He further quoted Asadullah as saying that his wife was too young and weak at the time of their marriage and the couple mutually decided not to have a baby for some time.
The suspect, who knows the Quran by heart, told the inspector that he took his wife months after their marriage to his hometown where he came to know that she was pregnant. He grew suspicious when he found a photograph of Kashif in her handbag. She told him that Kashif had assaulted her, according to the suspect’s account.
Inspector Narejo said later Rashida gave birth to a baby who was four months old now.
Giving the details of the double murder, the police official said Asadullah along with his wife, elder sister-in-law and younger brother reached the victims’ house and made the couple drink milk laced with a heavy dose of tranquilizers.
He said the suspect first shot dead Kashif and then Mehwish. They tried to make the double murder look like a suicide by placing a suicide note on the victim’s body. The victims were found lying side by side in their bedroom. A suicide note saying ‘we are killing ourselves on our own’ and a TT pistol were also found from the scene.
The investigator said there was sufficient medical evidence to establish that “it was not the case of suicide, but homicide”.
He said suspect’s brother, Kaleemullah, was still at large and police were making efforts to nab him.
In reply to a question, the investigation officer said he had not found any eyewitnesses who might have seen had seen the suspects either enter into or come out of the victims’ house on Nov 21.
Earlier, SHO Inspector Javed Hussain had ruled out the possibility of the couple being killed by robbers as all valuables were found untouched.
He said the victims’ relatives believed that there was no need to register a murder case as the couple had committed suicide. “But it didn’t appear to be a suicide as the pistol was lying on the chest of Kashif,” he said, adding that a murder case had been registered on behalf of the state.
