Mustafa Amir murder: Cop shot in 2025 raid on Armaghan’s house succumbs to injuries
KARACHI: A police officer who sustained bullet wounds during a ‘poorly planned’ raid on the house of the main suspect in the Mustafa Amir murder case succumbed to his injuries on Monday.
Deputy Inspector General Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that Deputy Superintendent Police Ahsan Zulfiqar was injured during a raid jointly carried out by the Anti-Violent Crime Cell and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) to arrest the main accused, Armaghan Qureshi, at his home located on Khayaban-i-Momin in DHA on Feb. 8, 2025.
He recalled that DSP Zulfiqar was shot and injured in firing allegedly carried out by the accused, Armaghan. “The injured DSP Ahsan Zulfiqar had been fighting for his life for several months,” said the DIG.
Police sources told Dawn that the operation was poorly planned by senior police officers. Local police were not informed beforehand and arrived to assist when the firing started.
The wounded officer had been receiving treatment at a private hospital. His condition deteriorated as an infection spread through his wounds, and he was hospitalised.
Funeral prayers for the slain officer will be announced later, the DIG said.
Mustafa Amir, 23, was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by his friends — Armaghan and Sheraz alias Shavez Bukhari — in Karachi’s DHA on Jan 6, 2025. According to the police, the accused stuffed Amir’s body in the trunk of his car and torched it in the Hub area of Balochistan.
Both accused denied the charges before the court, which also summoned witnesses and adjourned the hearing until March 12.
A final charge sheet against Armaghan in the murder case was filed in August 2025.
Last month, an Anti-Terrorism Court framed charges against main suspect Armaghan and co-accused Sheraz.
In the wake of the murder, three junior police officers, including the Darakhshan station house officer (SHO), were suspended and demoted to lower ranks over their “unprofessional conduct” while probing the kidnapping and murder case.
However, then-Sindh inspector general Ghulam Nabi Memon had defended senior police officials responsible for the investigation, saying they did face certain “handicaps” due to a host of factors during the initial probe.
On January 5, a Karachi judicial magistrate granted Armaghan post-arrest bail in a case involving an illegal call centre and credit card data theft.
Other cases
Besides the murder case, Armaghan is facing several other charges.
Armaghan had been implicated in a data theft case in a first information report (FIR) registered with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on April 16, 2025.
The case accused Armaghan of operating an “illegal call centre” in Karachi’s DHA, which was used for harassment, fraudulent activities, identity impersonation, cheating, spoofing, phishing, and extortion.
In July 2025, the IO of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) informed a judicial magistrate that Armaghan had rented two properties to set up call centres in Lahore and Islamabad after Amir’s murder.
Cases had previously been filed against him for injuring policemen during a February 2025 shoot-out that led to his arrest, as well as for the recovery of imported illegal weapons and money laundering.
