Murder suspect told to submit reply over private bank’s complaint

Atif Zaman, who is an accused in the DHA double murder case, was ordered by the banking court-IV judge on Thursday to submit a response by January 13 to the complaint moved against him by a private bank.

Atif Zaman and his brother Adil Zaman have been booked for murdering anchorperson Mureed Abbas and their another business partner Khizar Hayat over a monetary dispute in Defence Housing Authority on July 9 earlier this year.

Previously, the provincial home department informed a district and sessions court about the transferring of the case to a court in the central prison for security concerns. A letter written by the Sindh Home Department to the district South’s additional sessions judge Ramesh Chandar Rajput read that an unwanted incident could occur during the hearing at the City Courts.

According to the charge sheet, Atif called Abbas and Hayat to different places, a few hundred meters away, in DHA on the pretext of returning some of the amount he owed them. He first allegedly shot dead Hayat at a traffic signal and later went to kill Abbas in an office. CCTV footages show Adil accompanying Atif during this spree.

It was transpired later that the weapon with which Atif did the murders belonged to Adil. But Adil claims he did not know about his brother’s intention. After the incident, Adil went into hiding in Balakot.

However, police arrested him a couple of months ago. According to police, a number of people, including the victims, had invested money in a tyre business owned by Atif. But the suspect had not been paying his investors for months.