The Sindh High Court has revoked the administrative powers of an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) judge who refused to grant physical remand for Armaghan Qureshi, a prime suspect in the Mustafa murder case.

A two-member bench, led by Justice Zafar Rajput, heard the case during which Sindh’s Prosecutor General Muntazir Mehdi recommended the revocation of the judge’s powers due to “allegations of record tampering.” Mehdi stated that “such a judge should not remain in office.”

The court issued a detailed decision to withdraw the administrative powers from the ATC judge following the proceedings.

It should be noted that after the suspect’s arrest, when he was presented in ATC-I, the judge opted to place him in jail custody instead of granting remand.

The decision led to multiple allegations and complaints against the judge. The SHC was approached, which ordered the suspect to be presented in ATC-II and initiated action against the concerned judge.

What do we know so far about the Mustafa murder case?

The Mustafa murder case is one of the top stories on news channels nowadays. It is a case of the kidnapping and killing of a 23-year-old Karachi resident.

One has to be careful while reporting such news as the choice of words, style of presentation, and thumbnails on YouTube videos often build opinions even before the court announces its judgement in the case. So, in this case, it is of great importance to gather all the available information with background and listen to all versions of the story to report it.

The following text is sourced from the police investigation and interrogation reports, court decisions, and people related to the Mustafa murder case.

Mustafa Amir, a DHA resident, was allegedly abducted on January 6, but the case made headlines when the Sindh policemen addressed a press conference next month. Six days later, the Balochistan Police recovered a charred body in a torched car and handed over it to the Edhi Foundation.

In a media talk on February 14, police claimed that his friends killed the kidnapped youth. They allegedly stuffed the body in the trunk of his car and torched it in Balochistan’s Dureji area. Police also claimed to have arrested the prime suspect’s friend, Sheraz aka Shavez Bukhari. It was Sheraz who disclosed the information during the investigation.

The prime suspect Armaghan was arrested during a raid bungalow in DHA following a ransom call to the family. Suspects allegedly demanded Rs20 million from the victim’s family. Sources within the police say the gun battle with the suspect continued for four hours.

They took laptops from the house and blood samples were found on a carpet in a room. As the case unfolded, investigators claimed that the conflict between the two started because of a woman. The victim’s mother also accused the same girl of killing her son in a video statement. She claimed that the woman fled to the United States after the incident.

On February 15, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi sent Shiraz to police custody on physical remand till February 21. Police failed to get physical remand of the prime suspect, drawing officials’ ire. A legal expert clarified that the criticism against the court for not granting a physical remand was not appropriate as the police did not seek a physical remand in the first information report related to the case.

He told Aaj News’ programme Dus that the case would come under the jurisdiction of the ATC after the addition of Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (punishment for acts of terrorism) to the FIR.

On the same day, three police officers were suspended from their duty for their apparent negligence in the case.

The prime suspect was a “habitual offender,” police records showed. Complaints against him alleged that he was involved in extortion, kidnapping, drug dealing, and illegal possession of weapons.

When an Aaj News correspondent visited the suspect’s house, he saw that there was a high-tech facility in the house which was apparently used as a “software house.” Moreover, Kamran Qureshi, the suspect’s father, defended his son’s gun battle with the police and denied accusations. He accused the victim of selling drugs to his son and blamed a “police officer” for the “entire conspiracy.”

On February 17, a judicial magistrate approved a request for the exhumation of Mustafa’s body. Later, a three-member medical panel was formed by the judicial magistrate (West).

The next day, an ATC in Karachi sent the prime suspect to police custody on a four-day remand and sought a medical report.

An interrogation report claimed that the victim and the prime suspect were childhood friends. It was a reiteration of the account Shiraz told to police about the incident.

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On February 20, Armaghan allegedly confessed to killing the victim as the chilling details of the report claimed that he offered the victim a “chance to escape before setting him on fire.” The charred vehicle in which Mustafa was allegedly burnt to death was present in Balochistan’s Durerji, Aaj News saw.

When Qureshi appeared on Imran Sultan’s show Dus, he claimed to have substantial evidence and advised to close the case or else “big names” would come to the limelight.

“I want to be the chief investigation officer of my child. I have plenty of evidence. I am a law graduate and hold a firearm licence,” he said while appearing on the show on February 21, 2025.

On February 22, an ATC extended the physical remand of suspects Armaghan and Sheraz by five days. The investigating officer claimed that two blood samples from the suspect’s house were collected and one of the blood samples was linked to a girl identified as ***a. He also informed the court about the money laundering allegations against the suspect

Furthermore, four persons, including a TV actor’s son, were arrested on Saturday. One of the suspects claimed to have sold drugs to Mustafa, according to sources within police.

Sources within the police said initial DNA testing of the samples taken from the body “confirmed that the person burned alive in Balochistan’s Dureji was indeed Mustafa Amir.”