Couple’s murder: Two suspects held; IO unaware about developments

SSP Junejo says recently-hired servant allegedly murdered husband and wife in E-11/4.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad Police have arrested two suspects allegedly involved in the murder of a couple found dead at their home in Sector E-11/4 last week.

The police have also recovered the stolen car, along with a chain and a bat allegedly used in the crime, yet the investigation officer of the case has no clue on these developments.

According to the police, the victims --- Riaz Mehmood and his wife Zakia Riaz --- were found dead at their home with their hands and feet tied with a rope and mouths taped. “They had died from suffocation. The killer had choked them and the victims were bleeding from the nose,” said a police official involved in the case. Mehmood worked for the World Bank while Zakia was the recently retired headmistress of the Islamabad Model College for Boys.

For Golra Police Station’s SI Muneer Ahmed, who is the investigating officer (IO), the case is still unsolved as no one has so far been identified let alone being arrested in the case. He is working hard in sifting through the mobile data obtained in the case to ascertain the identity of the servant who went missing following the murder. “I still do not even know who the suspect is and what has been stolen from the house.”

On the other hand, Operations SSP Asmatullah Junejo said the two suspects, including the servant --- Shahnawaz --- have been arrested from Peshawar and a car has also been recovered from Abbottabad, along with evidence comprising a chain and bat.

“The suspects are in the custody of the Islamabad Police while the vehicle is standing at a police station in Abbottabad,” Junejo said, adding that the suspects killed the couple for money and the vehicle. He further informed that the vehicle was impounded by the Abbottabad city police and will soon be brought back to the capital.

The investigation has so far revealed that the couple hired Shahnawaz after reading an advertisement published in an Urdu daily on July 20, said Junejo.

About the murder, Junejo said the suspects first killed Zakia and then attacked Mehmood who was getting ready for office at the time. Later, he said, they hit him with the bat and strangled him with the chain.

Surprisingly, none of these details were shared by Ahmed, the officer investigating the case. When told that high-ups had divulged details into the investigation, he said he was not aware and was still tracing the suspects through the mobile phone data presented to him.

“Why would I hide anything,” said Ahmed, adding that “I really do not have any details of the arrest and seizure.”

Senior police officials have also ruled out the possibility that the couple was murdered in the name of honour as they tied the knot against the will of their family members a few years ago.

A case (292/14) was registered against unidentified men on the complainant of the deceased’s brother at Golra Police Station under sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2014.