By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Investigators examining the murder of the young Karachi entrepreneur Mir Raza Ali have received a chemical examiner’s report and the results of a DNA test, but say the findings are not yet conclusive enough to point the investigation in a clear direction, sources close to the case said.
Ali, 25, an Institute of Business Administration graduate who owned the dessert business Wafflix, disappeared on 28 July. His body was discovered the following day with a gunshot wound in bushes near Shahi Qila Ground in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar neighbourhood.
The DNA report has at least settled one point of dispute: it confirmed that the body was indeed that of Ali, putting to rest theories that had circulated on social media suggesting someone else may have been killed in his place.
But the chemical analysis, carried out by the University of Karachi’s chemical laboratory on samples taken during the first post-mortem examination, has done little to clarify the central mystery of how Ali died. Investigators are still awaiting results from further samples, taken during a court-ordered exhumation of the body, as well as the police surgeon’s final report.
According to sources familiar with the investigation, the chemical report established three findings. It confirmed the presence of gunshot residue behind the perforation in Ali’s shirt, consistent with an entry wound. It detected traces of acid on the shirt, though there were no acid burns found on his body. And it identified bupivacaine, an anaesthetic and painkiller, in his blood — though sources cautioned this did not necessarily indicate he had been anaesthetised before he was killed.
Confusion over entry and exit wounds
The central unresolved question remains the trajectory of the fatal gunshot, which has divided the two post-mortem examinations and fuelled public speculation. The first post-mortem found a bullet wound to the chest, suggesting Ali was shot from the front. The second, conducted after the body was exhumed roughly 12 days after his death on a court order sought by his family, concluded he had been shot from behind.
Sources said the wound on the chest measured 38mm and was accompanied by burn marks on the shirt, while the wound on the back measured just 7mm and showed no signs of burning. “We are not challenging anything at this stage, but there is still confusion among investigators,” one source said.
Investigators have also noted that Ali’s kitchen, from which his dessert business operated, was located in the same area where his body was found — though it had been closed at the time of his death.
New team, new leads
The case has been taken over by a reconstituted investigation team, formed by Sindh’s inspector general of police, Javed Odho, and headed by DIG Crime and Investigation Amir Farooqui. The team is preparing to carry out geofencing around the crime scene in an effort to trace the movements of pedestrians, motorcyclists and motorists in the area at the relevant time, and will also seek the call data records from Ali’s mobile phone.
At the request of the family’s lawyer, Jibran Nasir, two additional officers — DSP Siraj Lashari of Hyderabad and Inspector Mohammed Ali of Karachi South — have been added to the team.
On Tuesday, a member of the new team, Rapid Response Force SSP Mohammed Ali Raza, visited the crime scene alongside Ali’s parents and Nasir. He inspected locations the family had identified as significant and questioned staff at a nearby nursery. Nasir told reporters the family was cooperating fully with the renewed investigation. “The family is not hiding any information in the case,” he said, adding that samples from both post-mortem examinations had been sent to a forensic laboratory after delays in doing so were highlighted by media coverage.
Ali’s father, Mir Hussain, struck a note of cautious optimism. “If there had been an effective investigation during the initial days, the case would have been at a different stage today,” he said, adding that the family still did not know what had actually happened to his son. For the first time in 13 days, he said, he felt the inquiry was moving in the right direction. “The new investigation team is listening to everything we say. I trust them,” he said, adding that the family intended to pursue justice “to any extent” necessary.
Lawyer alleges evidence tampering
Speaking to journalists, Nasir levelled serious accusations against the previous handling of the case, alleging that Ali’s smartwatch — described as his only remaining digital footprint after applications had been deleted from his phone — had been held by SSP SIU Samiullah Soomro for eight days without any formal record, or memo, being prepared. Information extracted from the device, he said, had subsequently been shared with the media. “Isn’t this criminal conduct by SSP Soomro?” he asked, arguing that the absence of a memo amounted to manipulation of evidence.
Nasir said Ali had been missing for around 12 hours before his death and alleged he had been tortured during that period. “After finding acid on his clothes, we fear that he may have been forced to consume acid,” he said. Rejecting any suggestion that Ali had taken his own life, he said: “He was neither depressed nor deprived. He was martyred and oppressed.”
The lawyer also criticised the composition of the original investigation team, alleging that East SSP Zubair Nazir Sheikh had been included despite reportedly facing a Sindh High Court-ordered inquiry over an extortion allegation involving Rs500 million. He further claimed that another officer on the original team, SP Usman Sadozai, had been in Azad Jammu and Kashmir for two weeks and questioned how he could have been attending the team’s meetings.
Nasir accused the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police of overlooking the acid evidence and initially treating the death as a suicide, and alleged that efforts were under way to shield someone he described as “powerful, brutal and oppressive”. He alleged that Ali’s killers were professionals who had attempted to disguise his identity by pouring acid on his face and thumbs and setting fire to the crime scene, and suggested that around Rs300 million may have been withdrawn from his accounts in an attempt to fabricate a narrative of financial ruin and suicide.
Chief minister promises ‘fair’ investigation
Sindh’s chief minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, has pledged that the case will be investigated fairly and that the family will be kept informed throughout. Speaking to reporters at the Arts Council in Karachi on Tuesday evening, following a conference held to mark National Minorities Day, Shah said accountability would follow once the case was resolved. “After the case is resolved, it is my job to take action on the shortcomings of police and the medico-legal procedures,” he said.
He moved to clarify confusion over the government’s proposal for a judicial commission, stressing that its purpose was not to investigate the killing itself — which remained a matter for police — but to examine failings in the police investigation and the medico-legal process. Shah said he had sent Sindh’s home minister, Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, and the Karachi mayor, Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui, to meet Ali’s parents ahead of the announcement, and that the family had initially agreed to the commission’s formation. “When the family later said they did not want a judicial commission, we respected their opinion,” he said.
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