KARACHI: Three junior police officers, including the SHO of the Daralchshan police station, were suspended and demoted to lower ranks over their `unprofessional conduct` while probing the Mustafa Amir kidnapping and murder case, officials said on Sunday.

The 23-year-old youth had left his DHA residence on Jan 6 in his car but did not return back. His mother filed a report and two weeks later the case was transferred to the Anti-Violence Crime Cell (AVCC) when she received a ransom call. However, the slow pace of investigation could be gaugedfrom the fact that the police failed to trace the prime suspect, Armaghan, until the first week of February.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ghulam Nabi Memon confirmed to Dawn that three officers of South police had been suspended and demoted over their `attitude which was not professional`.

However, he defended senior police officials responsible for the investigations, saying they did face certain `handicaps` due to a host of factors during initial probe of the case.

Elaborating, he said that the victim, Mustafa Amir, did not use any local SIM, which made him technically untraceable for police.

Second issue was that the victim had been arrested and charge-sheeted by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) in a drug case.

Initially, the police suspected that he might have been taken away by law-enforcement agencies, but it transpired later that he was not in their custody, he added.Moreover, the IGP said that the family also received the ransom call unexpectedly very late.

He said usually when someone goes missing, the police used to consider this factor whether the victim was kidnapped for ransom or something else was involved. After several days, the family received a ransom call, which now appeared to be a deliberate move on the part of the prime suspect to divert attention ofinvestigators.

After the call, the case was transferred to the AVCC, which in collaboration with Citizens-Police Liaison Committee initiated efforts to recover the youth. However, it transpired that he had been 1(illed on the very first day of his 1(idnapping.

He said there was a `dispute` between `friends` upon which the `extreme action` was taken leading to Mustafa`s killing.

The IGP said after the murder, two suspects in the case left the city initially for Lahore and later on they went to Skardu. He said the prime suspect came back toKarachi three-four days prior to his arrest.

The other suspect, Sheraz, aka Shavez Bukhari, came back to Karachi two days before his arrest.

He said after the arrest of Armaghan, the investigators faced another problem as the court concerned did not give his remand to police for investigation. Rather it sent him to jail. Now, the police have filed a revision plea before the Sindh High Court to get remand of the prime suspect.

`Now, our focus is to ensure better investigation of the case to bring the culprits to justice,` the IGP said, adding that a better team of investigators had been formed, who would work under the supervision of the prosecutor general of Sindh for better results.

The IG urged the family to cooperate with the investigators.

Another officer, DIG South Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that three officers had been suspended because they did not achieve any `breakthrough` in the case.Replying to a question about a reported video of the mother of Mustafa Amir, Mr Raza said he was aware of the video in which the grief-stricken mother had blamed the South-SSP (Investigation) over `victim blaming` He added that an inquiry would be conducted into such allegations.

According to two orders issued by DIG Raza, SHO of Darakhshan police station sub-inspector Abdul Rasheed Pathan and SIO (station investigation officer) of Darakhshan (Investigation) SI Zulfiqar Ahmed and Investigation officer ASI Iftikhar Ahmed have been suspended and demoted to the ranks of ASI and head constable, respectively, with immediate effect, pending inquiry/departmental proceedings into their conduct in connection with the Mustafa Amir kidnapping case.

They have been sent to police headquarters Garden where they shall attend daily roll call/parade. They shall draw pay and allowances as admissible under the rules.