• Eight-member board exhumed the corpse in presence of magistrate, family
• Police surgeon says cause of death reserved till receipt of reports
• Says young businessman suffered injuries on head and face
• Family lawyer wants investigation team replaced

KARACHI: A fresh post-mortem examination conducted following the exhumation of the body of young business owner Mir Ali Raza on Saturday found that he had been shot in the back, evidence that ruled out the possibility of suicide.

Sources told Dawn that an eight-member medical board that exhumed the body in the presence of a judicial magistrate at the Tariq Road graveyard also found “multiple injuries on the head and face” and “fractures on the nasal bone and skull” that indicated he might have been subjected to torture before being fatally shot.

Raza, owner of eatery Wafflix, had gone missing on July 28. The 25-year-old’s body was found a day later with a gunshot wound in bushes near Shahi Qila Ground in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

While his family is convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, investigators probing the incident said they found evidence that strengthened the possibility that he died by suicide.

A controversy over flawed autopsy report and investigations compelled Raza’s family to file an application before a judicial magistrate for exhumation of the body for a fresh post-mortem examination.

On Saturday, the eight-member board, headed by Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed, in the presence of a magistrate, victim’s family and lawyer and the investigating officer of the case performed the exhumation.

The post-mortem examination continued for one hour and fifteen minutes and the body was buried again at around 1:33pm

“We have collected samples for positive identification, chemical analysis and gunshot residue. The cause of death is kept reserved for laboratory reports,” Dr Syed told Dawn.

Regarding autopsy, she said that multiple injuries were found on the head and face. “Fractured rib on the back which is the entry wound of the gunshot [that] exit from front,” she said.

She said the body bore “injuries in right flank and feet [and] congealed black substance present in mouth and throat”.

Lawyer demands new investigation team

Later in the evening, lawyer for Raza’s family Advocate Jibran Nasir alleged that the 25-year-old had been tortured before being murdered and demanded that the entire investigation team be replaced.

Speaking to the media, he said the medical report of the second post-mortem detailed some of the alleged injuries Raza had sustained before his death. “This was murder following torture — the murder of a happy, ambitious and educated young man from Karachi,” he alleged.

The lawyer said that Raza had wounds to his forehead and a fractured nose, as well as swelling and congealed blood around his lower jaw, consistent with having been punched. “There is a fracture to his temple above his ear, indicating he was struck,” he alleged.

“In the tongue area, a congealed black substance was discovered, which is not naturally found in the body. This substance has been taken and sent to a lab to see what he was forced to ingest,” he said.

“Now we come to the firearm injury, where it was earlier said that he was shot in the chest and the bullet exited through his back. We have now proven 110 per cent that the bullet entered his back and exited after breaking and fracturing his ribs,” he said, referring to the fresh autopsy.

The family’s lawyer also criticised senior police officials, alleging that they “do not want to investigate, but rather humiliate, harass and exhaust the family”.

“They are finding months-old recordings and frustrating, emotionally exhausting and humiliating Mir Hussain and Maryam Hussain. Are you investigating or harassing them? They sat them in their offices and told them repeatedly, ‘It’s a suicide, accept it’,” the advocate claimed further.

Advocate Nasir added that he and the family had “no faith” in the investigation team and that they wanted the entire team changed.

Raza’s father, Mir Hussain, told reporters that he had maintained since July 30 that his son’s death was a brutal murder. “We saw the body and told them [that it was murder], but they kept saying, ‘Suicide, suicide, suicide,’” he said.

Mir Hussain said it “brought us peace” to learn that their claims that Raza had been attacked before his death were true. “We have said it was murder from the start,” he added. “Why are they hiding the killers?”

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2026