Karachi police claim to recover 'charred body' of missing DHA youth from Hub

• Police claim Shavez collaborated with Armughan in murder.
• CIA DIG says Shavez disclosed entire details of crime.
• Co-suspect to be produced before court for remand tomorrow.

KARACHI: Karachi police claim to have made significant progress in the Mustafa Amir abduction case, a BBA student who went missing on January 6, as they discovered that the missing youth’s body was set on fire along with his car near Hub checkpost, investigation officers said on Friday.

The Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) had been facing the challenge of recovering Amir alive or his body after his prolonged disappearance despite collecting significant evidence against prime accused Armughan.

According to the investigation officers, Amir's body was recovered from a burnt vehicle by the cops from the Hub checkpost. "Amir was taken in the [same] car to Hub Chowki where Armughan along with his friend torched it," they added.

In a press conference today, Crime Investigation Agency Deputy Inspector General (CIA-DIG) Muqaddas Haider said that the recovery of Amir's mobile phone and other evidence from Armughan's house was a turning point in the investigation.

Haider said that the case was transferred to the CIA after Amir's mother received a call for ransom on January 6. He detailed that the abductee's body was recovered from the torched vehicle near Dhoraji police station in Balochistan's Hub district.

He announced that they also arrested another suspect, Shiraz Bukhari alias Shavez, over suspicion of collaborating with the prime accused in the murder.

He added that the arrest of Shavez, who is a close friend of Armughan, helped the police to discover the entire details of the crime from the abductee's murder to the disposal of his body.

"Shavez will be produced before the court to seek his remand on Saturday. Shavez's admission corroborated statements of Armughan's servants who were detained for questioning by the police in which they admitted that Amir came to their house on January 6 and was shot dead after a fight erupted between them."

The officer revealed that Dhoraji police station had registered a first information report (FIR) regarding the recovery of the torched car and the body. He added that the Balochistan police handed over the body to a welfare organisation for its burial as an unidentified body.

Haider said that the investigators would present all evidence before the court and seek remand of Armughan. Subsequently, the police will also conduct a DNA examination of the body with the sample of the student's family, he added.

The alleged abduction for ransom case came to light after prime accused Armughan opened fire at a raiding team of the AVCC, a specialised unit of the Karachi police responsible for tackling cases related to murder and extortion, last week.

The raid resulted in a standoff between the suspect inside the bungalow and police outside, which lasted for hours and left two cops, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) wounded. However, in the end, police successfully arrested the suspect, Armughan.

Since then, police continued searching for Amir's whereabouts but failed to make any headway except for claiming to collect some evidence from the bungalow including the missing young man's mobile phone and blood stains.

During interrogation, Armaghan initially admitted to the murder but later denied it.

The investigation has also faced significant obstacles as the court did not grant police remand for Armaghan, making it much harder for the AVCC to take the investigation forward.