KARACHI: An eyewitness during an identification parade on Tuesday identified a suspect detained in the murder case of his 24-year-old daughter Misbah Athar during an armed mugging incident.

Police claimed to have arrested Mohammed Nabi, alias Afghani, a suspected scavenger-cum-street criminal, for his alleged involvement in the mugging and murder of medical student Misbah on Oct 3 within the remit of the Gulshan-i-Iqbal police station.

On Monday, the investigating officer moved an application before a judicial magistrate (East) with request to conduct an identification parade of the detained suspect by an eyewitness.

The witness, Athar Anwar, deposed that he was sitting in a car along with his daughter Misbah waiting for her university bus at Mochi Mor on Rashid Minhas Road at around 7am on Oct 3.

The father deposed that meanwhile two armed motorcyclists came there and snatched his mobile phone and wallet and Misbah’s as well.

The witness said that Nabi mugged them while his other accomplice fired a single shot at his daughter that proved fatal. She later succumbed to her wounds during treatment in hospital.

According to contents of the FIR, Misbah, a third-year medical student of the Hamdard University, was shot at by the two muggers near her house in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal area. The suspects managed to flee towards a settlement near Sohrab Goth.

Later, the police arrested suspect Nabi, said to be a member of the Afghan scavengers involved in street crimes in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal area.

The police claimed to have recovered the victim’s mobile phone and the motorbike used in the offence from his possession.

The police claimed that the other suspect, identified as Qari Bashir, had killed the medical student during the mugging.

According to the police, a gang of Afghan scavengers, including Afghani, Bashir, Fazal, Naimat and Bashir, had been committing street crimes in areas of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Mobina Town, Gulistan-i-Jau­h­ar, Sharea Faisal, Bahadur­abad, Aziz Bhatti, Sachal and SITE Superhighway.

TV anchor case

A local court remanded on Monday in judicial custody suspect Adil Zaman, a brother of the alleged prime suspect in TV anchor Mureed Abbas’s murder case, in an arms case.

Adil Zaman has been booked for his alleged involvement in the murder of Mureed Abbas and Khizar Hayat by his brother Atif Zaman in the Khayaban-i-Bukhari, DHA area on the night of July 9.

On Monday, the investigating officer produced the suspect before judicial magistrate (South) Abdul Raqeeb Tunio to seek his physical remand in a separate case pertaining to arms.

The IO informed that a .30-bore pistol licensed in the name of Adil was unlawfully used by Atif in the alleged murder of both his business partners over a dispute involving shady investments worth billions of rupees.

Therefore, he requested for Atif’s custody to interrogate him in this regard.

However, the judge remanded him in judicial custody with the direction to produce him on next date.

The IO was also told to submit an investigation report in the case and fixed the matter for Oct 23

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2019