KARACHI: The managing director of a Chinese shipping company was killed by a contract killer hired by the son of his Pakistani partner, a police officer told Arab News on Sunday.
Chen Zhu, 45, was murdered in Neelum Colony near the Zamzama area in the upscale Defense Housing Authority neighborhood on Feb. 5, the officer said.
Police identified the deceased as the managing director of Cosco Saeed Karachi Shipping Private Ltd.
Superintendent Tauqeer Naeem said Chen and his friend Ye Fan were shopping in Neelum Colony when an assailant opened fire on them, killing Chen and injuring Ye.
On Saturday, police produced two individuals, Saqib Ahmed and Rehan Hashim, before a local court, saying they had killed the Chinese national. Police demanded the physical remand of the accused for further interrogation.
Raja Umar Khattab, a counterterrorism officer in Karachi, said Ahmed and Hashim were interrogated along with several other employees.
“They were making contradictory statements. When we probed them further, they confessed that they’d killed Chen,” Khattab told Arab News.
Ahmed, who was marketing director at the shipping company, is the son of Chen’s Pakistani partner Shakeel Ahmed, Khattab said.
When Chen came from Jakarta to become managing director, he found financial irregularities, prompting him to investigate the matter, police interrogators were told by the accused and other staff members.
Chen pointed out that Saqib’s job as marketing director violated the company rule forbidding the employment of two people from the same family.
Chen fired Saqib, which led the latter to hire a contract killer. Police identified the killer from CCTV footage, but he is yet to be arrested.
The police officer said the murder was not an attempt to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
On May 5, the Counterterrorism Department (CTD) said it had foiled an attempt to target CPEC-related projects by arresting two alleged terrorists associated with a separatist Sindhi nationalist outfit.
CTD official Chaudhry Arif told Arab News that they had carried out attacks against Chinese nationals associated with a CPEC project in December 2016.
