Karachi police on Sunday arrested a second suspect in connection with the alleged killing of a young man in Bahria Town Karachi (BTK) earlier this week over what police had described was a trivial issue. One suspect was arrested earlier, which means that now two of the four suspects are at large.
The police action, including the arrest made today, came after the murder drew the attention of social media where #JusticeForJazlan trended, with tons of people condemning the incident. The trend raked up thousands of retweets.
Speaking to Dawn.com, Malir Senior Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Arab Mahar said that another one of the nominated suspects, Mohammed Irfan, was arrested today. He said that the father of three of the suspects, Mohammed Faiz, was also detained for interrogation.
Imran Aslam Khan, an uncle of the deceased, told Dawn.com that Jazlan was one of three "orphaned siblings" since their father, Faisal, died in 2012. The uncle said that Jazlan's elder sister lives in Australia while he was pursuing a chartered accountancy course.
The police had launched an investigation on Thursday after Faisal was shot dead, while his 20-year-old-friend Shah Mir Ali was wounded, allegedly by some other youths after a scuffle. The victims had raised objections to the suspects' late-night bike riding in BTK.
Subsequently, Gadap City police had registered a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of the deceased’s uncle, Arif Sabir, against four people, including three brothers. One of the nominated suspects has already been arrested.
In the FIR, the uncle, Arif Sabir stated that he was at his home at Haroon Bungalows when he received a phone call from Shah Mir, who asked him to immediately come to the Aga Khan University Hospital at around 2am on Wednesday.
When he reached the hospital, he saw that his nephew Jazlan and Shah Mir were in the emergency ward with bullet wounds. Jazlan was unconscious and on the ventilator but Shah Mir was in a position to speak.
He informed him that he, Jazlan and their friend Zargam were travelling in Zargam’s car and were returning after meeting their relative Ibrahim. They were travelling on Jinnah Avenue when they saw a youth riding a motorbike in a very ‘dangerous manner’ and narrowly missed hitting their car.
When they angrily asked the youth as to why he was riding his motorbike in such a dangerous way, the youth started using abusive language resulting in an exchange of hot words.
The biker immediately phoned his brothers. In the meantime, the car's occupants drove away after they saw that they were being followed by the motorcyclist and another car.
When they reached BTK's ‘Eiffel Tower’, the suspects travelling in the car overtook the other vehicle and opened fire on the victims. As a result, Shah Mir and Jazlan suffered bullet wounds while their friend Zargam remained unhurt. Jazlan was hit in the head.
After the firing, several people rushed to the spot and shifted the wounded to a nearby hospital inside BTK from where the victims were taken to the Aga Khan University Hospital where Jazlan died during treatment.
According to Shah Mir, three brothers — Mohammed Ihsan alias Ahsan, Mohammed Irfan and Mohammed Hasnain — and Inshal allegedly attacked them and fled from the crime scene.
Unlicensed weapon
On Thursday, SSP Mahar told Dawn that the suspects were teenagers and he did not think that they possessed a license of the pistol that was used in the killing. Investigators were also trying to recover the weapon used in the murder, he added.
The SSP regretted that children of certain influential families, which had money or power tended to fight over minor issues, resulting in such tragic incidents. He lamented that a quarrel has also recently taken place between the youths over bike racing inside Malir Cantonment.
Imran Aslam Khan, an uncle of the deceased, told Dawn.com that Jazlan was one of three "orphanned siblings" since their father, Faisal, died in 2012. The uncle said that Jazlan's elder sister lives in Australia while he was pursuing a chartered accountancy course.
