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In a dramatic turn of events, police produced two key witnesses in the Mustafa Amir murder case before a judicial magistrate on Thursday.

Both witnesses, who were employees of the prime suspect, Armaghan, made startling revelations in court.

The investigation officer arrived at the City Court with the witnesses to record their statements. The two suspects, Armaghan and Shiraz, were also present.

The court was informed that the investigation officer had requested the recording of statements under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code for Armaghan’s two employees, Ghulam Mustafa and Zohaib.

During the proceedings, defence lawyers Abid Zaman, representing Armaghan, and Khurram Abbas, representing Shiraz, were also in attendance.

Witness recounts chilling details

The first witness, Ghulam Mustafa, provided a gripping account of the events leading up to the murder.

He testified that on January 6, at around 9pm, a thin boy arrived at the premises.

“He was wearing trousers and a jacket. I didn’t see his face,” the witness stated. An hour and a half later, he heard shouting and abusive language, followed by two or three gunshots.

“When we stepped out of the room, Armaghan called us over after checking the security cameras. He told us not to worry and asked us to bring a cloth and a plastic bag. We went upstairs with the items. He then instructed us to clean up the blood. There was also a pair of trousers there,” Ghulam Mustafa recounted.

He further testified that another boy, wearing glasses and sporting a light beard, was present upstairs with Armaghan.

“The boss made us clean the blood. The trousers had red floral patterns. He told us to put them in a bag and then ordered us to go back downstairs.”

Ghulam Mustafa added that the boy who had gone upstairs was no longer there — only the trousers remained. At around 1am, when he went to lock the door, he noticed that the boy’s car was gone.

The cover-up and police raid

The next morning, Ghulam Mustafa recalled hearing loud banging on the gate around 1:30pm.

“When we opened it, the boss and his friend were there. They asked why we had locked the gate. We said we thought they were asleep. He told us to relax and not to worry.”

Later that day, Armaghan called them upstairs again and instructed them to erase any traces of evidence. However, by then, the trousers had disappeared. “After that, the boss gave us leave.”

Ghulam Mustafa stated that they were not allowed upstairs except when called. They had to ask for food and water via phone. A few days later, the police raided the premises.

“There was gunfire from upstairs. We were hiding in our room. There was an exchange of fire between the police and those upstairs. Eventually, we managed to slip away unnoticed.”

On January 10, when they returned near the bungalow to collect their belongings, the police arrested them.

During questioning, Ghulam Mustafa said they told the police everything. That same night, the police took them back to the crime scene, where they pointed out the bloodstains they had cleaned.

“The stains had turned greyish. The police lifted the carpet and found blood underneath. They even cut pieces of the carpet as evidence.” Ghulam Mustafa added that they also showed the police a bullet hole in the wall.

Suspects identified in court

At the end of his testimony, the court asked Ghulam Mustafa whether he could recognise the accused present in the courtroom. Without hesitation, he identified both Armaghan and Shiraz as the suspects involved in the crime.

The court proceedings are ongoing, with further developments expected in the coming days.

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.

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.”

The funeral prayers for the victim were offered at Masjid Ali, Khayaban-e-Mohafiz, DHA Karachi on February 23 as his father refused to take “diyat” (blood money).