KARACHI, Dec 16: A son of the chief secretary of Balochistan and former CS of Sindh, K.B. Rind, was found dead with a bullet hole in his head on Sunday morning in the Defence Housing Authority.
His car was found parked in a desolate area of the DHA Phase VIII, close to the under-construction Chinese consulate.
Aged between 30 and 35 and posted as a DDO in the Revenue Department at Nawabshah, Shahzad Rind was found dead in the driving seat of his maroon Corolla (AKV-002). One of the three sons of the chief secretary, he was earlier posted as a section officer in the Sindh home department.
“His head leaned forward between the steering and the door and a holy Quran recitation cassette was playing in the car’s stereo. Both his hands were on his pistol while his left thumb was stuck in the trigger loop,” the SP Investigation, South, Niaz Khosa, stated.
However, a difference of opinion over the entry and exist points of the bullet persisted between the medico-legal officers and police investigators.
Going by the forensic textbook instances, the deceased was shot from behind as the hole was smaller than the hole found in the forehead, a senior police officer remarked. However, the medico-legal officers who carried out the postmortem examination were of the opinion that the victim was shot from point blank range in the forehead, creating a large entry point, and exited from the back of his head, making a small exit point.
The latter opinion seemed to carry weight as police found an impression of a bullet-slug on the headrest of the driving seat. Similarly, a bullet-slug was also found on the car’s floor.
Police found the family’s clothing in the rear seat of the car, a briefcase containing some files and documents were also found in the car’s boot, police said.
Quoting a watchman of an under-construction site, a senior investigator said he saw the car at around Saturday midnight. However, in the morning when the engineers arrived at the construction site, they reported the matter to police.
“Confusion prevails at the moment. We can’t term it a suicide, nor can we describe it a murder at this point of time,” said SP Niaz Khosa.
Police have collected the deceased’s cellphone to retrieve the call details which could help establish that who was the last caller or what was the last dialed number. A senior police officer, quoting the family, said that Shahzad along with his family had returned to the city on Saturday evening.
First they went to their apartment in the Boating Basin area but could not open the door lock, which had developed some fault. Then Shahzad along the family went to the official residence of his father in Bath Island, where he tasked a servant to take care of the lock problem.
At around 11pm, the servant told the family that the lock had been fixed, and the family returned to their apartment, the officer said.
Quoting Shahzad’s wife, the senior police officer said that after reaching their house, Shahzad went out saying that he was going to withdraw some cash from an ATM.
It was the last time the family saw him, the officer said.
“We will start gathering evidence from the ATM point if he had used one and the call details, but owing to the weekly off police were unable to retrieve the information,” the SP Investigation said.
An investigator, seeking anonymity and quoting some family sources, said that in the past Shahzad had reportedly tried to commit suicide by jumping from the rooftop of his house but survived with some injuries.
However, the family had described that incident as an accident, saying that he was fixing the dish antenna when fell down.
Though he didn’t support a beard, the deceased was said to be a religious man and had a good reputation as a government officer.
Police were informed about the abandoned car at around 8 in the morning. Presuming that the victim would be some commoner, police reached the spot at around 9am.
Following the postmortem examination, carried out at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the body was sent to Nawabshah.
Till the filing of this report, the FIR of the case was not registered. “We have sent a duty officer with the body to Nawabshah who will record the family’s statement and upon his return an FIR will be registered at the Darakhshan police station,” Clifton SP Asif Ajaz said.
The deceased’s father, K.B. Rind, dashed to Nawabshah from Quetta to attend the funeral of his son.
When contacted, a spokesman for the Balochistan chief secretary avoided commenting on speculations about the murder of Mr Rind’s son.
He said the Rind family had no enmity with any individual or group, and there was no justification to establish any dispute.
“Chief Secretary Mr Rind will soon talk to the media to make the position further clear after the Soyem of the deceased on Tuesday,” he added.
Burial in Nawabshah
Zulfiqar Memon adds: The body of Shahzad Ali Rind was brought here from Karachi and buried in his ancestral graveyard in Kaley Bux Rind village on Sunday evening.
A brother of the deceased, Sikandar Hayat Rind, denied that Shahzad had committed suicide. He, however, said that he or any of his family members had no enmity with anyone. He said that investigations were under way and the cause of the death would soon be ascertained by police.
A large number of people, including Chief Minister of Balochistan Sardar Mohammad Saleh Bhootani, IG of Balochistan Masood Gohar, Brigadier Masood, Brigadier Saboor (retd), former MPA Dr Bahadur Dahiri, Secretary Sindh United Party, Syed Zain Shah, former DIG Ghulam Hyder Jamali, former secretaries Abdul Qadir Mangi, Ashique Hussain Memon, DCO Nawabshah Abdul Razzaq Qureshi and other relatives and officials attended the funeral.
A large number of people including Sindh Chief Secretary Fazalur Rehman, former chief secretary Aslam Sanjrani, Pemra Chairman Iftikhar Rasheed, Secretary for Labour Wahid Bux, Gen Asif Abbasi, Gen Anis Abbasi and the Military Intelligence DG offered telephonic condolences to K.B.Rind.
Former MNA Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah and former MPA Ghulam Qadir Chandio of the PPP also offered condolences to K.B.Rindh on behalf of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari.
