Warrants out for absconding suspects in Effendi murder case

A sessions court on Friday issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of four suspects wanted for the murder of Zain Effendi, great grandson of Sindh Madressatul Islam founder Hassan Ali Effendi, during a robbery at his house in Cosmopolitan Society.

A judicial magistrate of District East ordered the investigation officer to arrest the absconding suspects, whose identities have not been released, and present them in the court at the next hearing on March 29.

Earlier, police had submitted a charge sheet against six interned suspects, including the suspected robbers, a jeweller and a sim seller. The suspected robbers have been identified as Rehmatullah, Imran, Mohammad Gul and Faizan.

According to the charge sheet, the suspects are habitual criminals and have been to jail in the past over similar crimes. It said that the suspects sold the looted gold to a jeweller who melted it to avoid being traced.

Initially, the police had booked five unidentified men over the killing of 50-year-old Effendi, who was also a cousin of the country’s former president and Pakistan

Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

The FIR of the incident was lodged by the victim’s wife, Anita Zain, who said four armed men entered their room after breaking the door lock at around 4:20am and pointed their guns at them.

She said that as the robbers demanded her gold ornaments, she immediately gave them her chain and a ring. Meanwhile, she added, one suspect took her husband to the other room while others took two mobile phones and cash in the room.

She said that on the resistance of her husband, the suspect who was holding him hostage fired on him, it missed, but the next bullet hit him in the face.

The suspects fired three to four more shots on him before leaving.