KARACHI: Relatives and community members of a ‘missing’ man found dead off the Superhighway within the remit of the SITE Superhighway police station on Thursday staged a protest near Toll Plaza on Friday, officials and witnesses said.

SITE Superhighway police station SHO Sohail Khan told Dawn that the body of 34-year-old Moosa Khan with torture marks was found near an abandoned police checkpoint off Northern Bypass on Thursday.

He was buried in a local graveyard in Khilji Goth off Superhighway.

Victim’s family calls for judicial inquiry

Quoting the father of the deceased, Jalad Khan, the SHO said that Moosa Khan and his brother Essa Khan were allegedly taken away by “men in plain clothes” from their home in a Gadap locality three days ago.

The SHO said that the family had not lodged the brothers’ missing or kidnapping report at the Gadap police station.

Instead, they approached court. The court took up their petition, however the body of Moosa Khan was found soon thereafter.

The police had taken the statement of Jalad Khan and an FIR of ‘kidnapping’ and subsequent murder would be registered, added the SHO.

Meanwhile, after the burial of Moosa Khan his relatives and members of the Aqakhail tribe protested for a while near the Toll Plaza.

They demanded judicial inquiry into the ‘extrajudicial’ killing of Moosa Khan and immediate recovery of his missing brother Essa.

The father told the media on the occasion that his sons had no association with any criminal group. He claimed that his deceased son had been arrested in a “fake” drugs case and was acquitted by the court.

Both the brothers were stated to be cloth merchants at Jama Cloth Market and imported clothes from China.

The tribesmen warned that if their demands were not fulfilled within next 24 hours, they would be compelled to block the Superhighway in protest.

Meanwhile, Malir SSP Adeel Hussain Chandio while talking to Dawn denied that Moosa Khan had been taken away by the police.

Late on Friday night, SITE Superhighway SHO Sohail Khan told Dawn that the police have taken the statement of the victim’s father, Jalad Khan.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2018