Wanted: Police identify factory supervisor’s killer

The suspect's mother confirmed his identity through the CCTV footage

KARACHI: Police investigators have finally managed to identify the suspect who had shot dead the supervisor of a factory in New Karachi, around two weeks ago.

The factory supervisor, Saleemuddin, son of Ahmed Din, was shot dead on January 7, inside his office located on the second floor of the Islam Designer factory in Godhra Colony, New Karachi. The footage of the CCTV camera installed at the supervisor's room, where the incident took place, recorded the entire episode.

With the help of the CCTV footage, the police finally traced him and detained his mother, Rabia Bibi and father, Muhammad Akbar. Rabia, speaking to the media at the District Central SSP office on Tuesday evening, admitted that the suspect was her son. She identified him as Abdul Raheem. "He [Raheem] belongs to the Sunni Tehreek (ST)," she said.

"We just detained the killer's parents as Rabia said her son will surrender to the police if he saw his parents in police custody," explained Gabol Town SHO Muhammad Sajid Hussain. "The parents are innocent and have cooperated with the police. We did not arrest them."

"Abdul Raheem, who fired shots at the supervisor, was associated with ST but he is continuously changing his location," said the officer. "The party is supporting him and helping him change his location to avoid arrest," he said. “He killed the supervisor over refusal to pay extortion money.”

The officer said that the police have traced all the members of the group, which was also found to be involved in the targeted killing of Dr Arif Mustafa of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Dr Mustafa was gunned down in Buffer Zone on December 21, last year.

For his part, ST spokesperson Fahim Shaikh denied Raheem's affiliation with the party. He added that their party's head Sarwat Ejaz Qadri had always called for action against such extortionists and target killers.

"Even if he was a member of our party, the police should take strict action against him because this would be his own doing. We have nothing to do with this incident."

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2015.