Timber Market trader may have been killed over extortion, say investigators

The investigations into the murder of an iron merchant in the Timber Market on Wednesday suggest that he was murdered for not paying extortion money.

The deceased trader, Shahzad Jafarani, a resident of the Bahadurabad area and father of three children, was killed when unidentified assailants opened fire on him at his shop in the Timber Market within the jurisdiction of the Napier police station, killing him on the spot.

The murder case was registered against unidentified suspects at the Napier police station on the complaint of the victim’s son Ovais.

According to District City SSP Amjad Hayat, the record of the deceased trader’s mobile phone had been obtained, which revealed that neither did the trader receive calls from abroad nor did he make any calls in connection with extortion demand. An employee of the victim, Raheel, however, received a call from abroad 20 minutes after the trader’s murder, the SSP said, adding that the caller did not disclose his identity but accepted responsibility for the murder.

Raheel received call from a Dubai number, SSP Hayat said. He added that as of now, there was no evidence of any extortion call being received by the trader. The murder was being investigated from various angles, including extortion and personal enmity, said the officer. He assured the victim’s family that police would soon trace the culprits. Two bullets recovered from the crime scene have been sent to a forensic laboratory for analysis.