Mir Raza’s final hours: A trail of calls, a Rs30m plea and a vanishing act

Phone records and CCTV footage trace the victim’s movements through Karachi before he disappeared from view at 4:38am

KARACHI:

A flurry of late-night phone calls, a WhatsApp message seeking Rs30 million, the sudden disappearance of social media accounts and a trail of CCTV footage that eventually runs cold — the final five hours and 14 minutes of Mir Raza Ali’s life are marked by a series of unexplained developments.

A forensic examination of his mobile phone has pieced together a timeline of his movements and communications in the hours before he vanished on July 28, offering a minute-by-minute account of his final known activities.

The sequence began late on July 27, with a series of calls between Mir Raza and his friends.

At 11:24pm, his friend Raziq called him for 30 seconds. Six minutes later, Mir Raza called Ahmed Bhardey. The two spoke again at 11:39pm, a minute after Raziq had called Mir Raza for the second time. Another call from Raziq followed at 11:43pm, but it lasted just two seconds.

At 11:49pm, Mir Raza made a much longer call to his friend Sarim bin Tahir, speaking for 168 seconds. Three minutes later, he sent Sarim a WhatsApp message asking for Rs30 million, adding that something was going to happen in the morning that he was not prepared for. What he meant by the message remains unclear from the available timeline.

At around 1:30am, Mir Raza and Raziq had a meal at Ghaffar Kabab House, before the trail of calls resumed.

Read: In damning report, judicial commission seeks JIT for Mir Raza probe, FIA-led inquiry into police conduct

At 2:13am, Mir Raza called Ali Jimani, who returned the call three minutes later. Their conversations lasted 42 and 75 seconds, respectively. At 2:23am, Mir received a call from his business partner, Abdullah Bhardey. They spoke for 201 seconds.

Then, around 3am, another development emerged: Mir Raza’s social media accounts began to be deactivated.

His fiancée, Salwa Khan, noticed the disappearing accounts and tried to reach him through WhatsApp calls and messages. She received no response until 3:58am, according to the timeline.

By then, Mir Raza was making arrangements to travel.

At 3:57am, Bykea driver Ehsanullah received a ride request from Mir’s number. The ride was booked at 4am. Until 4:02am, Mir continued exchanging WhatsApp messages with Ahmed Bhardey, even as he remained unresponsive to his fiancée.

At 4:07am, the Bykea ride reached Cheese Valley in PECHS.

Two minutes later, at 4:09am, Salwa informed Mir Raza’s friend Haitham that all his social media accounts had been deleted. Around the same time, his WhatsApp account was also deleted, adding another unexplained turn to the sequence of events.

At 4:11am, CCTV footage from Cheese Valley showed Mir Raza sitting in the front seat of a vehicle.

The next recorded attempts to contact him went unanswered. Between 4:20am and 4:22am, Salwa made eight calls to his SIM number. Shahryar, an employee of Wafflix, also tried to reach him during the same period. Neither received a response.

Read more: Judicial commission visits Mir Raza murder site, summons key witness

At 4:28am, CCTV footage captured Mir Raza getting out of a vehicle outside United Charter School in Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s Block 3. He was subsequently seen walking along Qila-e-Street towards University Road.

The trail continued for another 10 minutes.

At 4:38:27am on July 28, Mir Raza was last seen on CCTV footage from a rent-a-car office on Hill View Road. After that, the available footage offered no further sighting of him.

His body was recovered on July 29, at a location some distance from where he was last seen.

The timeline leaves several questions unanswered: what prompted Mir Raza’s request for Rs30 million, why his social media accounts disappeared within hours, and what happened after he was last captured on CCTV.

The phone records and camera footage establish a sequence of calls, messages and movements. But the circumstances surrounding his disappearance — and the events that led to the recovery of his body the following day — remain the central mystery.