KARACHI: A police guard in Karachi allegedly strangled a 27-year-old man, who has been identified as the son of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Peshawar Shahab Mazhar.
The circumstances under which this happened are still unclear, however, according to the postmortem report revealed by hospital sources, the victim, Umair Shahab, suffered a heart attack while being strangled by a rope. According to police officials, the victim was strangled by his guard, Faqir Muhammad, over a monetary issue.
The incident took place at the victim’s house located in Defence Khayaban e Sehr, said SP Clifton Asad Aijaz.
The guard had bought a rope and a pair of gloves to prepare for the murder, police told media.
The guard also tried to kill the victim’s mother.There were stains of blood all over the deceased’s mother’s room, a police official told media. SP Clifton Dr Asad Malhi, however, denied the claims that there was an attempt to murder any other family member of the victim.
Police have confirmed that the suspect has been taken into custody.
The deceased’s father, DIG Shahab Mazhar, accused the police guard of murdering his son. He, however, denied any monetary dispute between his son and the accused guard. He said that the guard demanded money from his family and on their refusal attacked and killed his son.
The arrested guard, Faqir Muhammad, claimed that he only killed Umair in self-defence. He said that he needed Rs 200,000 to send to his native village and that he asked the DIG’s family for it; a request that they refused. “Meanwhile Umair came and picked a fight with me”, he told media, adding that “Umair tried to kill me, but got himself killed when I defended myself”.
The suspect was recruited in Kashmore police in 2002 and had been deployed on the security of the DIG’s residence since 2016, police said.