Confessions: Extortionist accepts he killed factory supervisor

The police said they managed to arrest Raheem with help from the CCTV footage

KARACHI: One of the suspects behind the murder of a factory supervisor was arrested by the police on Monday.

More than two weeks ago, Saleemuddin, the supervisor of Islam Designer, was shot dead in his office located on the second floor of the factory in Godhra Colony, New Karachi.

The police started investigating the case immediately using the CCTV camera footage and managed to trace the culprit. His mother approached the police and media last Tuesday at the office of the District Central SSP and claimed that her son was the man the police was looking for. She also appealed for him to surrender to the police.His mother, Rabia Bibi, and father Muhammad Akbar were detained by the police till their son was taken into custody.

The accused was identified as Abdul Raheem and was arrested during a search operation in New Karachi. He was presented before the media at a press conference where he accepted that he had killed Saleemuddin.

According to Raheem, he had gone to the factory with three accomplices — Anwar, Ayaz and Ahmed. "They stood outside the factory," he said. "Anwar asked me to collect Rs2,000 as extortion from the factory owner. When I went inside, the supervisor told me to come later as the owner was not available." He added that Anwar kept talking to someone on a cell phone and kept giving instructions about what to do next.

Raheem claimed that he was using a hands-free and when the supervisor refused to pay up, Anwar asked him to aim and fire. "When I refused, Anwar threatened to kill me," he said. "He told me to keep firing till the man was dead. I shot him three times."

The evidence

The police said that they managed to arrest Raheem with help from the CCTV footage. "We identified him through the footage then detained his parents to force him into surrender," said SHO Sajid Hussain. "He kept hiding from us. Finally, after conducting raids in several parts of the city, we managed to arrest him and are now searching for his companions."

The police claim that besides being wanted for Saleemuddin's murder, Raheem and the others were also involved in the murder of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital's Dr Arif Mustafa in New Karachi last year. They said that Raheem and his companions had also killed a policeman identified as Subhan and injured another, around five months ago while they conducted a routine snap check. They added that the men were also affiliated with a political and religious organisation.

According to the police, Raheem and the three other men were also involved in extorting money from other factory owners in the New Karachi Industrial Area. Raheem, however, denied these allegations and said that he had not been involved in any criminal activity till the murder.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2015.