Former CDA assistant director murdered

Police found him after his neighbours complained of a foul smell coming from his flat.

ISLAMABAD:

Nazir Ahmed Shad’s neighbours had been wondering where he had been for the last four days. It was a terrible odour emanating from his flat in sector G-9/2 that led them to the answer.

Shad had retired from the CDA as an assistant director a few months ago and was living alone. A native of Malakwal Mandi Bahauddin, he had recently married off his only daughter. His wife had died some time back.

On Saturday afternoon, Shad’s neighbours called Rescue 15 to complain about the smell coming from Shad’s residence, fearing he may have died.

The police broke the locks to find Shad’s body in a room. The body was described by the police to be in a bad state of decomposition. They suspected it was at least four days old.

Both the entrance to the room and the flat were locked from outside.

“There were wound marks on his neck. He was probably strangulated with a wire or rope,” said a police official. The body was shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for autopsy. Shad’s family in Mandi Bahauddin were also informed of his death.

During the initial investigation, police found that Shad had last met one of his friends Muhammad Shafiq on March 8. “No one had seen him since then. Shafiq was the last person to meet him,” said a police official.

Police also recorded the statements of Shad’s neighbours who said they had seen two unfamiliar young men living with him since March 2. They added that they had not seen the two men since the last four or five days.

The two boys, whose identities remain unknown, are also missing.

A police official said they were investigating different leads, however, they have ruled out the possibility of a robbery as nothing valuable was missing from the flat and there were no signs of disturbance.

The missing duo remains the prime suspects in the case. Shad’s body was handed over to his family after a post-mortem.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2011.