Journalist murder case: Police formally announce arrest of suspects

KARACHI: The Karachi Police chief and head of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) Additional Inspector General Ghulam Nabi Memon on Friday formally announced the arrest of suspects in the murder case of journalist Aziz Memon during a press conference at Shaheed Benzairabad.

The JIT, headed by Additional Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon, was especially formed by the Sindh government to investigate the murder case of Journalist Aziz Memon. According to AIG, the police investigation has revealed that local journalist Aziz Memon was murdered on the basis of an enmity.

The same issue was broken by ‘The News’ in its May 22 edition with the heading of “Journalist murder case: two suspects arrested”, revealing the fact that “Two major arrests have been made in connection with the murder of journalist Aziz Memon, while police are searching one more key suspect who is still at large, revealed a source close to the investigation of the case.”

Aziz Memon was a journalist associated with a local Sindhi channel and newspaper. In February, he was found murdered in Naushehro Feroze, while the postmortem examination report released by authorities stated that he died of suffocation.

Today, the Karachi Police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon was addressing a press conference in Nawabshah, where he said that the arrested suspect in the case has confessed to his crime before the court.

The AIG police said that suspect, Nazir Sehto’s DNA matched with the crime scene and during investigation, the culprit revealed names of the other suspects as well. “So far three suspects have been arrested in the case, while five more are yet to be arrested,” said the AIG police.

Ghulam Nabi Memon said that he will not make any unconfirmed statement and the reason behind holding a press conference was to reveal the details of the investigation. The Karachi police chief said that further investigation is in progress in the case, expressing gratitude towards other institutions for assisting in the probe.

Earlier today, three suspects including Nazir Sahto were presented before a local court in Naushahro Feroz. The other two suspects were handed over to police on one-day physical remand. The suspects were arrested on Thursday after their DNA matched with the evidence.

On February 16, Memon's body was recovered from a river with a cable wrapped around his neck. According to AIG Ghulam Nabi Memon, journalist Aziz Memon was murdered in a planned move and in this regard Recci was also done a day before the murder.

AIG Memon added that Mushtaq Sehto the alleged mastermind of Aziz Memon murder case is still at large. It is pertinent to mention here that main accused of the case absconder Mushtaq Sehto along with his brother Afshad Sehto on May 28 (Thursday) leveled allegations of kidnapping of his relative women by Sindh Police during his press conference at Islamabad’s National Press Club. He denied any of his link with the murder of journalist Aziz Memon.

Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ), Sindh Journalists Council (SJC) and Pakistan Federal Unions of Journalists (PFUJ) leaders Amir Latif, Ghazi Jhangir, Shahzada Zulifqar and Rana Azeem have lauded the efforts of the JIT for the arrest of alleged murderers of journalist Aziz Memon and demanded early arrest of absconder main accused of the case.