KARACHI, March 28: Ballistic tests have showed that the gun seized from a suspected Taliban leader after he was killed in a shootout with police had been used in the murder of noted social activist Parween Rahman two weeks ago, it emerged on Thursday.

A report issued by the Sindh police forensic division a few days back confirmed that the spent bullet casings collected from the crime-scene after the murder of Ms Rahman in Orangi on March 14 were fired from the pistol seized from suspected Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan leader Qari Bilal the following day.

Speaking to Dawn, SSP District West Asif Ajaz Shaikh said that the forensic report confirmed that the “9mm pistol recovered from the possession of TTP local leader Qari Bilal after his death in a police encounter very next day of Parveen Rahman’s murder and the spent bullet casing found from the murder scene have matched in the ballistic tests.”

Prominent social activist and Orangi Pilot Project Director Parween Rahman was gunned down on her way back home from her office in Orangi Town on March 14.

On March 15, Qari Bilal of the banned TTP was killed on Manghopir Road in what police described as a police encounter. A car was also recovered from his possession that was later found to have been snatched from Orangi Town on the night when the OPP director was shot dead.

While the police had said that the attackers in the Ms Rahman murder case were riding a motorcycle, the SSP quoted some witnesses as saying that the car was seen near the crime-scene.

The police had already suspected the involvement of Qari Bilal in the murder of the OPP director but had been waiting for the results of the forensic examination to confirm it on a scientific basis.