Couple on the run shot dead in Karachi

Police say murders linked to an encounter which left 'most wanted criminal' dead

KARACHI:

A couple was gunned down in an apartment in a residential building, Billy's Heights, Gulistan-e-Jauhar on Wednesday morning.

The deceased, identified as Jaffar Hussain, 24, and his wife, Fauzia, 40, were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

According to Sharae Faisal SHO Iftekhar Hussain, the dual murder is linked with a police encounter, in which a most wanted criminal, Wahid Bux alias Fauji, was killed.

The encounter took place in the same apartment on March 19, where the couple was shot dead, said the SHO, adding that Fauzia was arrested in the encounter while Hussain managed to flee.

He further stated that Hussain and his wife were on the run in the case pertaining to facilitation of Bux, who killed former Gulistan-e-Johar SHO Raheem Khan, in a separate encounter on September 25, 2020.

"Fauzia was released a week after being sent to jail and Jaffar acquired pre-arrest bail" said Hussain.

The apartment had been vacant since the encounter in March and the couple had just shifted there on Tuesday night.

The police suspect that the murderers wanted to silence the couple to avoid being exposed.

Moreover, the police said that the deceased woman was the former wife of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London activist, Raees Mama.

According to the police, Jaffar's brother, in his statement to the police, had said that Jaffar had told him that Bux's son, Aziz Ahmed, was staying at their house for three days.

Sharing the progress in investigations, the police said that the couple was shot dead around 8.15 am by three armed men, including Bux's son Aziz Ahmed, as seen in the CCTV footage obtained later on the day.

The CCTV footage shows two men arriving on a motorcycle and being stopped by the security guard at the entrance of the apartments. However, the men manage to enter the premises and meet another man as he descends the staircase under the apartment.

The three suspects are then seen entering the lift and heading to the sixth floor, where the apartment was located. They then leave the building. The face of one of the suspects is identifiable in the CCTV footage while the other two, who seem younger, had donned masks to hide their faces.

The police collected four shells of a 30bore pistol and other evidence from the crime scene and sent them for forensic analysis.

Further investigations were underway till the filing of this report.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2021.