Top cops' sealed statements placed before Raza commission

Witnesses point to suspicious vehicles, alleged surveillance ahead of the killing

KARACHI:

Sealed written statements of three senior police officers were submitted before the Judicial Commission probing the murder of Wafflix's owner Mir Raza Ali on Tuesday, while witnesses told the panel that suspicious vehicles appeared to have followed the victim before the killing.

The statements were submitted by Karachi police chief AIG Azad Khan, DIG East Farrukh Lanjar and DIG Amir Farooqi, who headed the second investigation committee constituted to probe the case.

Mir Raza's family had requested that the three officers be summoned and questioned by the commission. However, the panel rejected the request and instead forwarded written questions submitted by the family to the officers. Their responses were subsequently submitted to the commission in sealed form.

During Tuesday's hearing, security guard Muhammad Riaz appeared as a witness and told the commission that he worked at a house near Masjid Khizra in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

Riaz said that at around 3.24am to 3.28am on July 29, he went to the rooftop to smoke a cigarette when he noticed two vehicles near the area. A driver appeared to be struggling to take one of the vehicles up a slope, he added.

Responding to questions from the commission, Riaz said he had seen one man who abused someone and remarked, "You can't get the vehicle up." He said both vehicles were white and that he had not seen either of them in the area before that night. A motorcycle also passed through the area during the incident, he added.

Mir Raza's counsel, Advocate Jibran Nasir, asked the witness whether police had visited his house. Riaz said he had heard from some boys that police had visited and were making inquiries.

Advocate Nasir told the commission that the registration number of the suspicious vehicle had been provided to police and that it was registered in the name of a man identified as Tariq.

Two journalists, Babar Saleem and Sault Jaferi, also recorded their statements before the commission. Saleem said CCTV footage appeared to show that Mir Raza was being surveilled. He said the vehicle following Mir Raza from Gulistan-e-Jauhar stopped outside the guesthouse.

He also alleged that the case had been deliberately compromised by police, claiming that Mir Raza's mobile phone had been locked while an attempt was made to unlock it.