KARACHI: A Crime Investigation Department official, missing for almost a year, was found shot dead in Lyari, where he had actively taken part in the 2012 operation led by the slain SP Muhammad Aslam Khan, better known as Chaudhry Aslam, against criminal gangs, officials said on Wednesday.

CID assistant sub-inspector Raja Arshad, 38, was kidnapped near the Spencer’s Eye Hospital last year and an FIR of the incident was registered at the Napier police station.

The Kharadar police arrested an alleged gangster who during interrogation disclosed that they had killed ASI Arshad and buried his body in the Meera Mai graveyard near the Baghdadi police station.

On Monday, the grave was dug up and a human skeleton found. The victim was identified by his mother through a ‘Taaveez’ and a tag of the tailor, which were intact in the grave, said a CID police spokesperson.

The funeral prayers were held at the Garden police headquarters and later he was buried in the Society graveyard in the Tariq Road area.

The victim was father of two daughters.

His elder brother, Raja Khalid, is an inspector in the CID police.

“Raja Arshad was Chaudhry Aslam’s right-hand man and had taken an active part in the Lyari operation against gangsters,” said the spokesperson. He added that the slain CID official had also remained an active member of the Lyari Task Force.

Man shot dead in Pirabad

A 35-year-old man was shot dead in Pirabad early Wednesday morning, police said.

They added that Bashir Hussain was riding a motorcycle when gunmen fired at him near Mustafa mosque in Qasba Colony. He was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

The body was taken to the Edhi morgue as his relatives could not be traced immediately, said the police official.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2014