A ride to kill for: Murderers of taxi driver arrested
When Shakeel’s body had been recovered, his face was wrapped in packing tape. His arms and legs had been folded behind him and tied. The ensuing autopsy had concluded that he died of suffocation because the tape restricted his air flow.
While confessing their crime in the custody of police, suspects Asad and Arsalan said that Shakeel was heavily under the influence of hashish before he was tied and thrown into the ravine. The two were traced by police because on of them was carrying a stolen mobile phone. Their third alleged accomplice, Munir Ahmed, is still at large.
The suspects had hired Shakeel’s cab for Murree in June this year. They had provided fake identity cards and cell phone numbers to the restaurant where they stayed for a night. The suspects knew that Shakeel was a hashish addict and provided him with an abundant amount of it.
On their way back from Murree, Shakeel was asked to leave the driving seat of his Toyota Corolla 2006 model. He was given hashish to smoke sitting in the rear seat of the car. By the time they were halfway down, Shakeel was heavily under the influence. The suspects stopped the car near a ravine, pulled Shakeel out, tied his hands and feet behind his body and bundled him into the rear of the car. When they reached the outskirts of Islamabad, they pulled him out and wrapped his face in packing tape before throwing him into a deep ravine where his head also hit a stone.
The suspects made away with his car. The already unconscious Shakeel died within few minutes due to suffocation. The Bhara Kahu police recovered his body four to five days after the incident when a passerby spotted it. His face was decomposed beyond recognition.
Fortunately his body was able to identify him the help of his clothes and other belongings. Police started investigating the matter and traced Shakeel’s journey to the restaurant where he had stayed overnight with the suspects.
The investigators found a few cell phone contacts and an identity card. With the help of one the cell phones, police traced Muhammad Asad and interrogated him. However, he was released as it initially appeared that he was innocent. Later, the police found a picture of Asad in the cell phone camera of one of the administration staff of the restaurant. In the meantime, Asad and the other suspects had fled to Karachi fearing arrests. However, they were arrested this month on a tip-off given to police that they were in Islamabad.
During interrogations, Asad and Arslan confessed that they had killed Shakeel for his car which they sold out for Rs150, 000 and equally distributed the amount. The two suspects were sent to jail on judicial remand. The third accomplice is still at large and efforts were underway to arrest him.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2010.
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