KARACHI: Police on Thursday claimed to have arrested Kamran Asghar Qureshi, the father of prime suspect Armaghan in the Mustafa Amir murder case, and recovered drugs and an unlicensed pistol from his possession.

Acting on a tip-off, the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) conducted a raid on a house on Khayaban-i-Momin, Defence Housing Authority, Phase-V, and arrested Mr Qureshi.

In a statement, the AVCC claimed to have recovered 200 grams of “ice” (methamphetamine) and a 9mm pistol along with two magazines and 10 bullets from his possession.

This arrest was a part of a crackdown underway on drug peddlers, it added.

The police registered a case against the held suspect under relevant sections of the Control of Narcotics Substances Act and the Sindh Arms Act.

Mr Qureshi came into the limelight after his son, Armaghan, was arrested in a police raid on his DHA residence on Feb 8.

Armaghan was booked and arrested for kidnapping and murdering Mustafa Amir. The police said that Armaghan and his friend, Sheraz, aka Shavez, Bukhari, stuffed his body in his car’s trunk and torched it in Hub, Balochistan on Jan 6.

While suspect Sheraz has been sent to prison by a court, Armaghan’s physical remand extended for the fifth time on Tuesday till March 24.

The prosecution had told an anti-terrorism court that Armaghan confessed to killing Mustafa Amir before a police officer. He had also revealed that his father knew about the murder and advised him to go into hiding and leave Karachi.

Meanwhile, DIG Muqaddas Haider told the media that Mr Qureshi had bought the weapons Armaghan used to attack law enforcers during the raid on his home.

He said the weapons were purchased from Peshawar. He added that investigators had obtained several videos from suspect Qureshi’s cell phone, showing him buying weapons from dealers.

The DIG said that Qureshi was also booked in a case registered against his son following the DHA encounter.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2025