KARACHI, April 12: A judicial magistrate recorded on Friday the statements of two prosecution witnesses in the Arshad Pappu murder case.

Alleged Lyari gangster Arshad Pappu, his brother Yasir Arafat and their confidant Juma Shera were killed on the night of March 16.

The police produced two witnesses before the court of judicial magistrate (south) Nadeem Badir Qazi who recorded their statements after completing the legal formalities under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code in the presence of detained suspects.

Court sources said that during their testimonies, the witnesses also identified two of the four suspects as those who allegedly abducted the deceased from an apartment in Defence Housing Authority.

The names of the witnesses were being kept secret because of security concerns.

Shahjehan Baloch, an undertrial prisoner and a candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party for NA-248 seat, Zubair Baloch, a brother of banned People’s Amn Committee chief Uzair Jan Baloch, Zakir Dada and Abdul Rehman were in police custody for

their alleged involvement in the case. According to the FIR registered on the complaint of Arshad Pappu’s widow, the alleged gangster along with his brother, a confidant and his 10-year-old son had gone to attend a party at a friend’s apartment in DHA on the night of March 16.

The boy came back at around midnight and informed his mother that around 20 men in two vehicles came to the apartment and kidnapped his father and the two others, it said and added that Arshad Pappu’s son managed to identify Zubair Baloch, Noor Mohammad alias Baba Ladla, his brother Zahid Ladla, Asif, Faisal Pathan and Zakir Dada as alleged abductors.

The complainant stated in the FIR that the victims were killed after being subjected to torture and the bodies of her husband and his brother were thrown in manholes in a Kalakot locality after being mutilated and alleged that the offence was committed on the behest of Shahjehan Baloch.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 297 (trespassing on burial place, etc), 392 (punishment for robbery), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act at the Kalakot police station.