Athar Mateen: Suspect 'snatched around 1000 motorcycles from Karachi'

KARACHI: The prime suspect in Athar Mateen murder case has confessed to snatching around 1,000 motorcycles in the city and was previously injured in a police encounter, the initial probe found.

According to details that have emerged after the initial probe, the suspect identified as Ashraf who was arrested from the border of Sindh and Balochistan said that he was involved in snatching motorcycles in the city for the last five years.

“The gang who operated on the behest of the suspect used to sell snatched motorcycles from Karachi in Balochistan,” it emerged.

Ashraf further admitted during the probe that he snatched nearly 1,000 motorcycles from Karachi and a policeman has also been martyred in a bid to foil a mugging attempt from his gang.

Two of his gang members were also killed in a police encounter which resulted in Anwar-who is now killed in police encounter- joining their criminal ranks, the investigators found and added that the suspects used to flee to Khuzdar after their criminal acts.

Earlier in the day, police claimed to have killed the main suspect in the high-profile murder case of journalist Athar Mateen.

Karachi West police along with the Qamar-Shahdadkot police party jointly conducted a raid in the area to arrest the culprit on a tip-off. Seeing the police party, the accused named Anwar Husni, opened fire at the raiding party.

In retaliatory fire by the police, Husni got killed. The police said the Anwar was the main suspect in the Athar Mateen murder case, who opened fire at the journalist.

On February 18, unidentified armed men opened fire on a vehicle in Karachi’s Nazimabad area, killing Athar Mateen as he tried to foil a mugging bid. Mateen worked as a news producer with a private TV channel.