Hotel owner’s killing: Court hands over main suspect over to police for four days

He was arrested by special investigation unit a day earlier

ISLAMABAD: A judicial magistrate on Thursday handed over the prime suspect in the murder of a Sitara Market hotel’s owner to police for four days.

Nisarul Haq, who owned the Star Hotel in G-7 Markaz, was shot dead inside his hotel on December 9. Haq was allegedly gunned down by a group of four people who ran his hotel, and whom he wanted to evict.

Police said that Shakeel Abbasi, one of the suspects, was running the hotel on contract and was due to vacate it on the day of the murder. The victim’s nephew, Ubaidul Haq, told the police that after heated arguments, Shakeel, Muneer Abbasi, Shabbir Abbasi, and Wajid Hussain shot Haq dead near the reception over the eviction notice and a dispute over the security deposit.

On Wednesday, the police apprehended Shakeel, who police said was the main suspect, from Bhara Kahu. He was produced before a judicial magistrate on Thursday and was given into custody of the Crime Investigation Agency for four days.

During preliminary investigation, he reportedly disclosed that he had a financial dispute with Haq over Star Hotel’s security dues of about Rs3 million. Shakeel claimed that Haq was supposed to pay them the dues.

Before the incident, there had been multiple harsh exchanges of words over the phone between the accused and Haq.

On December 9, when Haq came to the hotel to evict the suspects, Shakeel drew a pistol and opened fire on Haq, police said.

Teams from the police’s special investigation unit raided various locations in Abbottabad, Peshawar, Faisalabad, and Sialkot, before ultimately recovering the suspect on Tuesday night when he was meeting his sister, a resident of Bhara Kahu in Islamabad.

The police are still looking for the other suspects.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2016.