KARACHI: A recently reinstated police officer was arrested on Thursday for his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of a young man, whose body was exhumed a few days ago in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, officials said.

Sub-inspector Asif Usman was arrested in the parking area of Karachi airport when he returned from Islamabad, said Bilal Colony SHO Mohsin Zaidi, who is investigating officer of the case.

The police officer was arrested on information provided by suspect Syed Ali, who was detained by the Rangers on Feb 23.

On information provided by him, the skeleton of the young man, Azfar Imtiaz, was found in a house in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

Suspect had formed kidnapping gang after dismissal from CTD

Sub-inspector Asif Usman was dismissed from the CTD around a year ago and he was reinstated by higher police authorities around 10 days ago, said former CTD DIG Amir Farooqi, who was recently appointed DIG West.

SI Usman had allegedly kidnapped the man and kept him in illegal confinement. An inquiry was launched against him and he was dismissed from the CTD.

However, Mr Farooqi told Dawn that the CTD had not accepted his rejoining of the force and asked the higher authorities to appoint him somewhere else in the police.

The IO of the case, Mohsin Zaidi, was reluctant to share details of the case.

Police sources familiar with the case told Dawn that Asif Usman after being dismissed from the CTD had formed a “gang” to kidnap people for ransom.

They had allegedly kidnapped Azfar Imtiaz in F.B Industrial Area on April 5, 2017.

Initially, the police arrested the main suspect of the case, Syed Ali, last year. However, he was acquitted by the court concerned for faulty investigation and lack of evidence.

The police sources told Dawn that the father of Azfar Imtiaz subsequently approached the Rangers, who took the case “seriously” and detained the acquitted accused, Syed Ali. During interrogation the suspect “confessed” to his involvement in the kidnapping-cum-murder case and helped recover the victim’s body.

A senior police officer familiar with the case told Dawn on the condition of anonymity that the victim, Azfar Imtiaz, had been doing a telephone exchange business and reportedly made over Rs90 million from it. The arrested suspects hatched a plan to kidnap Azfar Imtiaz to extract money from his family. They kidnapped the young man but gave the “impression” that he was taken away by law enforcers, said the official.

Later they throttled the young man and buried his body in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in a house located off Abul Hasan Ispahani Road.

The sources said the detained sub-inspector was a brother of a senior police officer working in the Sindh police.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2018