The court of a judicial magistrate on Wednesday ordered the release of three suspected of involvement in the murder of college student Zafir Zuberi near Karachi's Do Darya area earlier this month.

The decision to release the three underage suspects — Haider Hussain Burney, Hasan Hussain Burney and Hasnain Hussain Burney — was made in light of a police report which indicated that there wasn't sufficient evidence against them.

The prime suspect in the case, Khawar Burney, is still in police custody, along with his guard Abdul Rehman.

Zafir and his friend Zaid were on their way to have breakfast at the beach on Dec 3 when they had a minor accident with Dr Abdul Raheem's motorcycle.

After the accident, suspects travelling in a double-cabin vehicle had chased them and opened indiscriminate fire on the youths' Mercedes in what seemed to be an act of vengeance around 9am on Abdul Sattar Edhi Avenue, police said.

Rehman had said the prime suspect had travelled to Seaview along with Dr Raheem on December 3.

At the time of the accident, Raheem had been racing a motorcycle on Abdul Sattar Edhi Avenue.

Raheem's other friends — Khawar, and two others identified as Hammad and Junaid Shah — were already present near the site of the incident.

Raheem was riding Hammad's motorbike when he was hit by Zafir's Mercedes, the suspect claimed.

Having seen the accident, Khawar started chasing the Mercedes in his Vigo.

In his confessional statement, Rehman said that Khawar had been the one to open fire at Zafir's car, as a result of which Zafir had been injured.

A case was registered against the suspects under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the deceased’s father, Fahim Ahmed Zuberi, at the Sahil Police Station.

Last week, three eyewitnesses had picked out Khawar and Rehman during an identification parade before a judicial magistrate.