Son takes a ‘hit’ out on estranged father

Zakariya’s son Fareed Qureshi has been arrested in murder of his father.

MULTAN: In the murder of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s close relative Zakariya Qureshi, Zakariya’s son Fareed Qureshi has been arrested.

According to police officials, Fareed Qureshi gave Rs1m to the killers to carry out the task and the murderers allegedly killed Zakariya Qureshi under his supervision. Police was given a remand for Fareed and 2 of his accomplices on Thursday. According to details, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s relative and former district nazim Riaz Qureshi’s brother Zakariya Qureshi was found dead at his house over two months ago. According to a post mortem report, Zakariya was strangled and on the complaint of his brother a case was registered against two unidentified people. “Initial police reports suggested that the murder was carried out by at least two people and one witness said that he saw two men leaving the house late at night,” said superintendent police Alamgir Chishti.

Initial investigations revealed that two men, allegedly Zakariya Qureshi’s disciples, came to meet him because he used to give them tavees. The disciples stayed at the house for the night and intoxicated the servants, killed Zakariya and fled the scene. Gulgasht police arrested Fareed and later released him after interrogating him for several hours.

Later it was revealed that Fareed’s girlfriend, Hafizabad resident Shumaila told police that he often visited her and mentioned a plot to murder his father.

Shumaila was arrested for interrogation purposes on Thursday and told the police that Fareed used to visit her often and wanted to kill his father. “He openly told me that he would pay Rs1m to anyone willing to commit the murder and then asked me if I knew anyone who could help him plan,” she said. Shumaila’s father Sikandar, brother Zaigham and relative Qasim planned to murder Zakariya. Zaigham and Qasim came to Zakariya’s house as disciples and fled after killing him. “I knew they were planning something together but he didn’t tell me about the specifics after I initially objected,” she said.

The police arrested Shumaila, Sikandar and Fareed. Police officials are still on the lookout for Qasim and Zaigham who have left the city.

According to neighbours, Zakariya Qureshi’s second marriage to a university student became the major cause of a rift between father and son. According to family members, Zakariya Qureshi was locked in a certain part of the house after his marriage and his son forbade him from bringing his wife in his presence. “He wanted to transfer his property in his second’s wife name but he soon discovered that Fareed had already sold most of his property,” said Zakariya’s brother-in-law Hashim. Later he asked his son to transfer the remaining property to his wife and the father and son had a major argument over the matter.

Locals have said that the police were aware that Fareed was involved in the murder. “In the initial questioning after the murder, we told the police about the rift between father and son and reports that Fareed was plotting against Zakariya but they didn’t want to deal with him because he came from an influential family,” said neighbour Muhammad Shabbir. Police officials insisted that while Fareed Qureshi was always a suspect, they did not arrest him because there was not enough concrete proof available to warrant his arrest. According to police officials, Shumaila’s number surfaced when the police examined Fareed’s mobile records and then called her in for questioning.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2010.