An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi on Tuesday extended the physical remand of Armaghan Qureshi, the key accused in the Mustafa Amir abduction and murder case, till March 24.
The accused subjected his friend, Amir, to horrific torture at his residence in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) before burning him alive in the Hub area of Balochistan on January 6 this year.
At the outset of today’s hearing, the investigating officer produced the accused before the ATC judge on completion of his remand and requested an extension of his physical remand for the completion of the investigation.
Meanwhile, police dragged the accused father out of the courtroom to maintain decorum as he was creating a ruckus before the honourable judge.
Armaghan, however, refused to accept new counsel provided by his father in the case. He also refused to meet his father too.
Meanwhile, the judge adjourned the hearing and sought progress report on the next hearing.
Last week, the ATC handed over the prime suspect to the police for seven more days in the Mustafa Amir kidnap and murder case.
The whole saga unfolded after Armaghan opened fire at a team of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) — a specialised unit of the Karachi police responsible for tackling cases related to murder and extortion — during a raid at his residence in Karachi’s DHA earlier this month.
The deceased’s body — found by police in a car near the Hub checkpost on January 12 and buried by the Edhi Foundation on January 16 — was later exhumed and subsequently buried after an initial DNA profiling report confirmed that the mortal remains belonged to Mustafa.
During the previous hearing, the investigation officer said, Armaghan admitted to confiding in his father, Kamran Asghar, about the entire incident after Amir’s murder, adding that his father had then advised him to leave Karachi and go into hiding, assuring him that they would also relocate the software house to another location.
The IO further said that the suspect admitted to travelling to Lahore, Islamabad, and Skardu with his friend, Shiraz, to evade arrest. He said the Counter-Terrorism Department was interrogating Armaghan about the recovery of illicit arms, while the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cybercrime Cell was also questioning him. The suspect had been interrogated by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) as well, he added.
IO Ali further informed the court that the suspect was an absconder and wanted in at least eight cases related to drugs, extortion, and other crimes. He added that the relevant police stations had been conveyed to take action against him in these cases. He said he needed the suspect’s custody to gather more evidence and complete the investigation.
