Conflicting statements by sole eyewitness of Intezar's murder

By
Talha Hashmi
|

Madiha Kayani is the only eyewitness. She was with Intezar Ahmed on January 13, when police officials from the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC), which is tasked to detect and impound stolen vehicles in the city, opened fire on his car, killing the 19-year-old in the upscale DHA area of Karachi. Soon after the shots were fired, a terrified Kayani hailed a rickshaw to flee the scene. For four days, she remained missing.

Then, she reappeared, agreeing to give an audio interview to a private television channel. It took some time to track her down, and finally, she agreed to talk. 

“I didn’t realize what was happening,” she said over the phone, her voice shaken and at time inaudible, “I can’t even recognize the men.”

What she remembers from that night is that the two of them bought burgers from a fast food restaurant, then made their way to meet a common friend, Suleman. A short while later they drove towards Khayaban-e-Ittehad, in DHA. 

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a car blocked them from the front, then one began closing in on them from the back. Meanwhile, two people on a motorcycle drove parallel to their car. Kayani noticed one of the men had a gun. Intezar stopped the car. The men on the bike peered in and then signalled to the car behind them. 

Within seconds, that car began to reverse, giving Intezar space to get out, or so it seemed. Then, rather oddly, the man with the gun fired into the air. Two shots rang loud before Kayani noticed another motorcycle show up. These men fired directly onto the car window. 

Within minutes, Ahmed was dead.

For over 40 days after she narrated the events, Kayani disappeared again. Finally reappearing on TV, this time giving a video statement to the same news network. 

She insisted that her friend’s “murder was pre-planned. Somebody was following him.” 

While the investigation has revealed SSP Muqaddas Haider's guards shot the boy, Haider’s statement, Kayani added, was not recorded in proper and transparent manner. For now, she wants the police to also investigate Ahmed’s other friends and his uncle. 

“I feel very insecure,” she said in a video interview, “I feel scared when I go out. I was there. I am the only eyewitness. I have even identified the man with a moustache.” At the end of the video, she appealed to the Rangers for security.

This was baffling. In her earlier conversation, Kayani denied being able to identify the culprits. Attempts to contact her a second time were in vain.

Then in the wee hours of the morning, at about 3am, Ahmed’s lawyer, who was also now representing Kayani reached out. 

Under his supervision, she agreed to talk. Her replies this time were short and to the point. Her recent statement, she said, should be taken as the only one that she “has made in her senses.”

But on Tuesday, during her session with the joint investigation team, tasked to probe the murder, a source revealed that Kayani rubbished her video statement. In fact, she told the investigators that she had made the statement under duress.

According to the source, she revealed that prior to her video statement she was picked up from her house by a man named Kazim Shah, who took her to Ahmed’s house. Later, she went with Ahmed’s father to a lawyer’s place to record the video.

“She seemed broken,” another senior officer, privy to the development said, “She is being pressurized by being told that she is also an accused in the case. But when I told her that she is an eyewitness, not an accused, she seemed surprised.”

Due to Ahmed’s case, the girl has lost her job. Her family is under immense financial constraints as their landlord wants them to vacate their house.

All attempts to reach out to Kayani since, have yielded no results.