Karachi police chief forms team to catch Zain Ali Effendi’s killers

A day after the murder of Zain Ali Effendi, great-grandson of celebrated educationist Hassanally Effendi, the Karachi police chief formed a high-level police team to catch the hitherto unidentified killers, against whom a case was registered on the complaint of the victim’s widow.

District East SSP Sajid Sadozai will lead the investigation team, which comprises Jamshed Division SP Farooq Bajarani, Darakhshan SDPO Zahid Hussain, Ferozabad SHO Aurangzaib Khattak, Jamshed Quarters SHO Chaudhry Zahid Hussain and Jamshed Quarters SIO Imtiaz Ahmed.

According to the relevant notification, Additional IGP Ghulam Nabi Memon has directed the team to investigate the case and arrest the culprits responsible for the murder as well as recover all the looted items.

Senior officers of the Karachi police, the Sindh Counter Terrorism Department and intelligence agencies visited Effendi’s house and set up a geofence, since one of the culprits had phoned his accomplice.

The police chief visited the victim’s house, where he briefly discussed the case with the family. He told the media later that the Karachi police busted several gangs and arrested criminals in the recent past, and that the police had to do hard work if such an incident occurred.

He said that a special team has been formed and all the evidences have been collected. When asked about the involvement of the White Corolla gang or personal enmity, Memon said that nothing can be said with certainty until the investigation is completed.

However, he added, members of the White Corolla gang had been recently arrested by the police. Experts from the forensic division of the Sindh police also visited the victim’s house for inspection and collected evidences.

The FIR of the incident, which took place in the wee hours of Wednesday near Peoples Chowrangi, has been registered at the Jamshed Quarters police station on the complaint of Effendi’s widow. Police have included the section of killing a person over offering resistance during a robbery bid in the case.

According to the complainant, four men broke down their bedroom door at 4:20am and started demanding jewellery and gathering valuables, and they shot her husband after he resisted the robbery bid.

“I quickly gave them my chain and ring. After my husband resisted, one of the robbers pushed my husband out of the room and shot him,” she said. The robbers also fired three or four more shots and also bound the domestic help with ropes.

The investigators said that according to the statements of the domestic help, the primary motive may not have been robbery: after breaking into the house, the robbers asked for Effendi, and when the help directed them to his room, they quickly went in and shot him dead.

The officials said the robbers had taken Effendi’s licensed pistol and mobile phone as well as his wife’s chain. They suspected that the culprits might have attempted to change the nature of the incident.

“In some cases, the culprits try to change the nature of the incident because they want the case to appear one of robbery so they make off with some valuables to misdirect the police,” said a senior investigator.

The officer said their investigation is in the preliminary stage, so nothing can be said with certainty about the nature of the incident, as it can be a robbery or a target killing.

Police have obtained the CCTV camera footage from the victim’s house showing the culprits to be of apparently Afghan origin and wearing shalwar kameez and trainers. The footage shows them arriving at the house in a car at 3:25am and leaving after 55 minutes.

On his visit to Effendi’s house, former Citizens-Police Liaison Committee chief Jamil Yousuf told

the media that the murder apparently occurred over resisting the robbery bid. He said the robbers first held the servants hostage, then snatched gold jewellery from Effendi’s wife, searched the storeroom and also shot Effendi there. He also said that five robbers were involved in the incident.