KARACHI, July 22: Police on Tuesday arrested three persons, including the prime suspect, in the case of the murder of a senior provincial government officer who was found shot dead on Monday.

Sources said Zeeshan, believed to be the prime suspect who had a monetary dispute with the slain bureaucrat, was arrested along with the victim’s jeep. Zeeshan is a resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

Two accomplices — electrician Arif who dismantled the vehicle tracking device and Gulfam — were also arrested, police said.

Agha Dhani Bux Pathan, 43, an officer in BPS-18, had left his Zamzama Street residence in Clifton in his tracker-fitted Prado jeep at around 11.30am on Sunday and his bullet-riddled body was found near French Beach the following day at 9am.

Earlier, a senior police officer associated with the investigation of the case told Dawn that the person who had brought the victim’s vehicle to a workshop in Sharifabad to dismantle the tracker has been identified with the assistance of the employees of Akbar Autos.

“We have identified the person and his address has also been traced,” the officer said, declining to identify the suspect.

The identification of the suspects led to their subsequent arrests. Earlier on Monday, following the recovery of the body police had detained four persons reportedly associated with the workshop for questioning.

Family sources said that Pathan, who was director of protocol in the previous government, told his wife before leaving that he was going to visit some friends. They said that at around 1.30pm, the victim – father of five – called his nephew, Ashfaq, telling him that he would return at around 3pm. However, the sources said, an unknown caller phoned the victim’s wife from his phone at around 4pm and asked her whether the victim’s vehicle was petrol-powered or diesel-powered.

They said the woman asked the caller where her husband was and why he himself did not tell the caller about the kind of fuel used in the car.

The sources said the unknown caller told Mrs Pathan that her husband only told him to take the vehicle for a refill and he did not feel it appropriate to ask him about the kind of fuel.

The officer said that apparently, it was a case of personal enmity. “The victim was also strangled before his tormentors pumped three to four bullets in his chest,” he added. The victim was believed to have been killed some 16 to 18 hours before his body was found.