Daily Times

KARACHI: Eighteen-year-old Zafir Fahim Zubairi who lost his life in a tragic incident on Sunday at Defence Housing Authority (DHA) was laid to rest amid tears and sobs on Monday.

The funeral prayer of the victim was offered at Sultan Masjid in DHA and later he was laid to rest at a graveyard in Phase I in Defence. A large number of people including his family members, relatives, friends and neighboring people also presented at the occasion. Though no government figure attended the funeral prayer, leaders from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Ali Zaidi and Imran Ismail attended the funeral prayer of the victim.

Zafir was killed and his friend, Zaid was wounded critically when Khawar Burney, already arrested prime suspect, had opened indiscriminate fire at the victim’s Mercedes on Sunday morning near Do Darya in DHA. Zafir and his friends in their Mercedes were apparently trying to flee after hitting and injuring a heavy bike rider at Phase VIII, DHA. Upon which Khawar Burney and others chased them and opened indiscriminate fire at their car, killing Zafir shortly after the incident while wounding his friend critically while two of his friends remained unhurt in the incident.

The suspects, however, managed to escape from the scene; however, the police arrested them including a prime suspect Burney during a raid at their residence at Allama Iqbal Road late in the Sunday evening and registered a case against Burney for killing Zafir and injuring his friend.

In his latest statement, Khawar Burney has admitted his crime but he tried to defend himself. “Yes, I opened fire but I had no intention to kill anyone. I just wanted to stop their car by busting their Mercedes’ tyres,” Burney told in his recent statement recorded to the police.

On the other hand, the heavy biker rider, Dr Rahim who was wounded when a Mercedes hit his bike also denied his relations with the accused. “Neither I know the victims nor do I know the suspects. I don’t have any relation with anyone,” he claimed in his video statement.

On the other hand, police officials believed that Dr Rahim was with the suspects. “Dr Rahim was with the suspects. He came there (DHA) for the bike racing when he got accident. One black coloured Vigo was also with him which his security guard was driving and his security guard also chased the Mercedes at that time,” said District South SSP Javed Akbar Riaz. “We have also recovered Dr Rahim’s Vigo and a security guard’s repeater gun. But we do not have any evidences that could suggests that the repeater had been used at that time or not.”

Zafir’s friends who were along with him at a time of incident also claimed that the accused did not attempt to stop a car. “They (suspects) had automatic weapons as well. They just opened indiscriminate fire at us instead of stopping us. The indiscriminate firing compelled us to speed up the car to save our lives,” Arham, one of the friends of the deceased narrated the story in his video statement went viral on the social media.

Published in Daily Times, December 5^th 2017.