Initial Exhumation report finds Mir Raza was shot from behind, body bore violence marks

Deceased businessman Mir Raza Ali was shot from behind and bore marks of violence on his body, according to an initial medical report following the exhumation of his body for a post-mortem examination on Saturday. 

According to sources, the initial report has provided answers to all 14 points raised during the examination by police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed. As per the initial report, Mir Raza sustained a gunshot wound from the rear, while marks of violence were also found on his body. The development came hours after Ali’s body was exhumed for a post-mortem examination, after which he was reburied at the graveyard near Tariq Road. 

The samples collected were sent for chemical analysis, the board member said, adding that the body was reburied after all formalities were completed.

Earlier, the exhumation process for the body of Mir Raza Ali proceeded in Karachi on Saturday, with the medical board’s teams later leaving the graveyard after completing sample collection work. 

The process began around 10:48am, when the deceased’s father Mir Hussain’s lawyer, Jibran Nasir, arrived at the graveyard. By 10:55am, the exhumation had formally commenced, with members of the eight-member medical board along with the deceased’s parents entering the site. No unrelated individuals were allowed inside, with a heavy police presence deployed at the location. 

The process of exhumation was completed under the supervision of a magistrate. Members of the medical board—including Police Surgeon Dr. Samia Syed and a forensic expert, while the father, mother, and sister of the young man, Mir Raza, along with their lawyer, were also present at the graveyard. 

Doors and windows of buildings surrounding the graveyard were ordered shut by the magistrate during the exhumation process, after it emerged that videos of the exhumation were being filmed from nearby buildings. Following the magistrate’s objection, police were deployed inside the residential buildings as well.

At 10:40am, the parents identified the grave, and by 11:09am, the body had been shifted out for examination. The medical board’s teams, working inside a tent set up outside the graveyard’s premises alongside the judicial magistrate, continued their work from that point onward, before wrapping up and stepping outside the graveyard following the completion of sample collection. Members of the board were seen consulting among themselves afterward. 

Speaking informally to the media, Jibran Nasir, the lawyer representing Mir Hussain, said the victim’s family was satisfied with the proceedings so far. He said while some evidence had been recovered, only the medical board could determine the quality of that evidence. He said the process would require further time before it could be completed. 

Mir Raza's father speaks to the media

Mir Hussain, father of Mir Raza told media that "I am satisfied with the exhumation process," "We will accept whatever report is issued," said Mir Raza's father. He said that his son had no dispute with anyone. 

 Mir Raza ‘murder’ case

Mir Raza, a graduate of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and owner of the eatery Wafflix, had gone missing on July 28. His body was discovered a day later with a gunshot wound in bushes near Shahi Qila Ground in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. He was 25 years old.

A case was initially registered at Ferozabad police station under Section 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code, pertaining to kidnapping or abduction with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person, based on a complaint filed by his father.

Police said their investigation so far indicates that Raza had been going through financial difficulties and had reached out to friends for money on the night he died. According to police, he left his residence in PECHS Block-2 and booked a ride through a taxi app; the driver dropped him off a short distance from where his body was later found.

The case took a fresh turn after Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told a private news channel on that the postmortem report raised several unanswered questions, noting discrepancies between some of its observations and the accompanying photographs. She said the documented entry wound, bullet trajectory and exit wound did not align with one another. While acknowledging it was scientifically possible for a bullet to enter from the back and exit through the front, she clarified that her assessment was based solely on the postmortem report and photographs, since she had not personally examined the body.

She further noted that entry wounds are typically smaller than exit wounds in gunshot cases, and pointed out that gunshot residue, routinely tested for on the hands in suspected suicide cases, had not been examined in this instance.

Following her remarks, police authorities issued a statement warning that such observations could negatively impact the ongoing investigation. The statement added, however, that the body could be exhumed on the recommendation of a medical board, subject to court approval, to allow further clarification by a panel of medico-legal experts.