Searching in the blind: Five days on, police remain clueless about Dr Rehman’s killers

KARACHI:

Police investigators have yet to make any headway in the high-profile murder of a Karachi University (KU) assistant professor, Dr Syed Waheedur Rehman, better known as Yasir Rizvi.

Dr Rehman, who taught at the varsity's mass communication department, was killed in broad daylight on April 29. Four unidentified men on two motorcycles opened fire on him in Federal B Area's Block 16.

"We are moving in the blind," Nisar Ahmed Qureshi, station investigation officer with the Yousuf Plaza police, told The Express Tribune. "At this point, the police really have no clue how to solve this murder case and from where to begin our investigations."

Qureshi is part of the investigation team, headed by district West Investigations SSP Arab Maher. The team visited the KU a day after the incident, promising the vice-chancellor, Prof Dr Muhammad Qaiser, to arrest the killers soon.

The investigation team was supposed to visit the varsity again on Monday to gather more information through the colleagues of the slain assistant professor, said KU teachers' society president, Prof Dr Syed Jamil Hasan Kazmi. No one came to the varsity or even bothered to contact the KU officials on the given day.

Meanwhile, on the recommendation of the mass communication department's chairperson, the KU campus adviser on security affairs, Dr Muhammad Zubair, has sealed the assistant professor's room in anticipation that the police may find some clues in his belongings.

"It is likely the SSP did not find the time today," Qureshi excused.  When contacted, SSP Mehar confirmed that the police had failed to make any breakthrough even five days after the murder. "We are trying our best," he assured.

Teachers rise to the occasion

The KU teachers, in collaboration with the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa), had issued a 15-day deadline to the Sindh government to apprehend the culprits, form a judicial commission to investigate the murder and offer Rs50 million in compensation to Dr Rehman's family. Failure to meet any of these demands would result in the suspension of academic activities in all public-sector universities across the country.

On Monday, the teachers at the university wore black armbands to mourn their colleague. The KU's mass communication department was an exception, where no classes have taken place since the incident and teachers and students held a Fatiha Khawani for the departed soul.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Higher Education Commission's (HEC) secretary Syed Mansoor Abbas Rizvi had approached Dr Kazmi, requesting him to withdraw the teachers' 15-day deadline for the Sindh government. The request was, however, snubbed politely.

"The Sindh HEC should fulfil these demands instead of trying to persuade the teachers' fraternity to even give up their right to protest," Dr Kazmi told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2015.