Business aide held over PTI leader’s murder

Police say suspect staged highway robbery along with two accomplices

MULTAN:

Basti Maluk police have arrested the prime suspect and his two accomplices in the murder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Tahir Hameed Qureshi who was the Multan chairman of the Chief Minister’s Complaint Cell.

According to the police, the prime suspect Muhammad Haris was the victim's friend, who wanted to take over his business after killing him.

He had tried to portray the killing as a result of resistance during robbery.

The police had received a report on October 14 that someone had shot Tahir Hameed Qureshi in the head and he had been severely injured.

The PTI leader later succumbed to his injuries in Nishtar Hospital.

A case was lodged by the victim's brother Siddiq Umar and Haris, who worked as the supervisor of a security company for the deceased, was nominated as a suspect.

The suspect was arrested and he revealed during interrogation that he had a friendly relationship with the deceased for 16 years. He said he had worked with Tahir Qureshi and was aware of all his business affairs. He said also enjoyed full trust of the victim.

Seeing the profit from the business, he got greedy and planned to kill Tahir Hameed Qureshi three months ago, he reportedly conceded.

On the night of the murder, Haris shared the location of the deceased with his co-accused from his mobile phone. With the help of the online location, the suspects chased the car of the victim on the link road from Ada Pir Ismail towards a farmhouse in Ballywala.

According to the investigators, the prime suspect and his accomplices crossed the victim's car and stopped their motorcycle in front of it.

His accomplices got down and took two mobile phones from Tahir Hameed and shot him in the right arm.

At the same time, Haris took out his pistol, sat in the car and fired two shots at the face of the victim.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2022.