KARACHI: A local court issued on Friday non-bailable warrants for the arrest of four suspects allegedly absconding in a case pertaining to the murder of Zain Effendi, a great-grandson of Sindh Madressatul Islam founder Hassan Ali Effendi, during a robbery at his house in Cosmopolitan Society.

Initially, the police had booked five unidentified men over the killing of 50-year-old Effendi, who was also a cousin of former president Asif Ali Zardari.

On Friday, when the matter came up for hearing the judicial magistrate (East) issued non-bailable warrants for arrest of the suspects.

The judge also directed the investigating officer to arrest the suspects, whose identities have not been released, and present them before the court on March 29.

Earlier, police had submitted a charge sheet against six detained men, including the suspected robbers, a jeweller and a mobile SIM seller. The suspected robbers have been identified as Rehmatullah, Imran, Mohammad Gul and Faizan.

According to the charge sheet, the suspected robbers are habitual criminals, who had also been jailed in the past over similar crimes.

It said that the suspects sold the looted gold to a jeweller who melted it to prevent its tracing.

The FIR of the incident was lodged by the victim’s wife Anita Zain, who said that four armed men entered their room after breaking the door lock at around 4.20am and pointed their guns at them.

The complainant said the robbers demanded her gold ornaments, thus she immediately gave them her chain and a ring. Meanwhile, one suspect took her husband to the other room while the other took two mobile phones and cash in the room, she added.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2021