Police in Karachi have detained 19 people for questioning during the investigation into the death of businessman Mir Raza Ali, according to police sources cited by Pakistani media. The people under scrutiny include guest-house workers, business associates, a ride-hailing driver and individuals linked to the victim's mobile phone.
Ali's body was found after 11:00 on July 29 in bushes near Shahi Qila in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, opposite the University of Karachi. ARY News reported that he had a gunshot injury to his chest and had disappeared two days earlier after an alleged abduction from his home in PECHS Block 2. Investigators have not disclosed a final account of how he died.
Newly obtained CCTV footage shows a scavenger reaching the location around 08:00 on the morning the body was discovered and remaining for roughly eight minutes. Police are trying to identify that person because they suspect an item, potentially the weapon, may have been removed from the scene. The footage is being treated as a lead rather than proof of involvement.
Accounts differed slightly over the number detained at an earlier stage. Daily Pakistan cited police sources saying 19 people were in custody. ARY initially reported 18 and said six were associated with a guest house and five were close friends of Ali. It also said a business partner had been summoned and that officers planned formal interviews with 13 people during the current phase. The higher, later figure is used here while acknowledging the discrepancy.
Detectives are also examining a possible financial dimension. Police sources said Ali had experienced a substantial loss involving a digital-currency business in April after accepting investments from several people. Authorities are questioning relevant contacts to determine whether those dealings bear any relationship to the killing. No evidence in the supplied reports establishes such a connection.
Ali's phone was being unlocked in the hope that it would yield information. Investigators said his missing pistol was a .30-bore weapon and that a bullet recovered in the case had the same calibre. They found no cartridge casing at the scene, and neither the firearm nor a casing had been recovered, complicating efforts to reconstruct events.
Police continued to record statements separately and review possible explanations. They had not said whether any detainee would be formally arrested or charged. The investigation therefore remains at an evidence-gathering stage, with the CCTV, financial records, phone and missing weapon representing lines of inquiry rather than conclusions about responsibility.
The guest-house connection, mobile-phone possession and business relationship are reasons police selected people for interview, not evidence that any of them participated in the death. The source did not name the detainees or provide their accounts. It also did not explain whether the alleged abduction had been independently established.
