New details emerging from the investigation into the death of Wafflix founder Mir Raza have complicated the narrative that first drew widespread public attention to the case, with several elements of the original abduction account now appearing inconsistent with evidence gathered by police in the days since his body was found.

When Raza’s death was first reported in late July, accounts from family members and initial police statements described a kidnapping. His father, Mir Hussain Ali, had filed a complaint at Ferozabad Police Station stating that his son stepped outside the family home in PECHS Block 2 at around 4 am on July 28, telling his mother he would return within ten minutes, and never came back. Early reporting, including previous coverage in this outlet, cited police descriptions of apparent burn marks on the body and injuries severe enough to prevent identification through facial features, with his father instead identifying his son through the clothing he had been wearing. Station House Officer Kamran Qureshi, who initially oversaw the case, said at the time that preliminary evidence pointed toward Raza having been tortured before being shot, a characterisation that shaped much of the public narrative in the days that followed.

That version of events has since been called into question on several fronts. A preliminary post mortem report cited by investigators found no evidence that the body had been burned, attributing visible marks instead to decomposition consistent with the one to two days that had elapsed and the prevailing heat, a finding confirmed by Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya. The autopsy determined the cause of death to be a single gunshot wound to the chest, which caused fatal blood loss, without corroborating the earlier claims of torture and burning that had circulated widely in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of his body near the Shadi Qila wedding hall in Gulistan e Jauhar Block 1.

CCTV footage subsequently obtained by investigators has added further complexity rather than clarity to the case. According to police, the footage shows Raza leaving his Wafflix outlet near Bahadurabad at around 3.30 am on July 28, roughly half an hour before his mother says he told her he was stepping outside for ten minutes. In that footage, he is seen taking a pistol belonging to the shop’s security guard from a drawer on the premises before driving home. Investigators say that once at his residence, he left behind his car, his smartwatch, his house keys and a sum of roughly Rs 39,000 in cash, before booking a taxi through a ride hailing application rather than driving himself.

The driver of that taxi has since been questioned by police and, according to his statement, picked Raza up from PECHS Society at 4.09 am and dropped him off in Gulistan e Jauhar Block 2 at approximately 4.28 am, a considerable distance from where his body would later be found. Investigators say Raza’s mobile phone was switched off near Johar Mor Hilltop at around 4.22 am, several minutes before he reached his destination, and that CCTV footage reportedly shows him walking alone after exiting the vehicle. Police say he never reached the Wafflix kitchen facility that he was reportedly headed toward, despite living and working in the general vicinity for years.

Police have also stated that Raza deleted his personal social media accounts before leaving his home that night and transferred a sum of Rs 250,000 to his father’s bank account, details that stand in some tension with the family’s original account of a young man who had simply stepped outside briefly on a whim and unexpectedly failed to return. The disappearance of both his personal and business social media accounts was widely noted at the time of his death, and had previously fuelled speculation online as to who might have taken them down and why. The more recent police account, if accurate, would suggest the deletions were carried out by Raza himself hours before he left home, rather than by family members or platform moderators after the fact, though this too remains part of an active investigation rather than a settled fact.

As a result of this emerging timeline, police have indicated they are now examining whether Raza’s death may have resulted from suicide rather than the abduction and murder initially alleged in the family’s First Information Report, though officials have been careful not to rule out foul play entirely, and no formal conclusion has been publicly confirmed by either the police surgeon’s office or the special investigation team now overseeing the case. The apparent contradictions, a licensed firearm taken from his own business, cash and valuables deliberately left behind, a self booked taxi ride, and a phone switched off by his own hand rather than found powered down by others, have not been reconciled with the family’s account of an abduction carried out by unidentified individuals outside their home.

An Additional Inspector General of Karachi Police, Azad Khan, has since constituted a three member special investigation team to review the case in full. According to a notification issued this week, the team is headed by SSP of the Special Investigation Unit Dr Samiullah Soomro, with SSP District East Zubair Nazir Sheikh and SP Investigation East Zone I Muhammad Usman Sadozai serving as members. The team has been tasked with tracing and identifying those involved in what is still officially being treated as an alleged abduction and murder, and has been authorised to seek assistance from any officer within the Karachi Range. The notification further states that the team will submit daily progress reports to the Additional Inspector General, an indication of the priority the case has been given amid sustained public attention.

Beyond the CCTV and forensic material, police say they are also examining Raza’s call records, personal contacts, financial transactions and cryptocurrency investments as part of a broader effort to understand his state of mind and movements in the hours before his death. None of these lines of inquiry have yet produced a public conclusion, and police have repeatedly stressed that findings remain preliminary pending completion of the full post mortem report and further review of digital and forensic evidence.

Raza’s father has previously told police that his son, an Institute of Business Administration graduate, had built Wafflix into a well known dessert brand over five years and had been due to marry in August, a detail that added to the sense of shock surrounding his death in its early days. Family members have not issued a public response to the newer details that have since emerged regarding the firearm, the taxi booking or the bank transfer, and it remains unclear how the family’s original account of an abduction squares with the picture investigators say the CCTV timeline presents.

The case has continued to generate significant public reaction in Karachi, coming as it did amid a string of other violent incidents involving young professionals in the city, including the shooting death of a young doctor near Teen Talwar in the same period. Much of that reaction, both online and in early press coverage, was shaped by details, including the reports of burn marks and torture, that have not been borne out by the preliminary post mortem findings. As the special investigation team continues its work, officials have not ruled out the possibility of further revisions to the public understanding of the case as additional forensic and digital evidence is reviewed. For now, police say the investigation remains active, with no arrests announced and no official determination yet made as to whether Mir Raza Ali Khan’s death was the result of abduction and murder, as first alleged, or a still unconfirmed alternative that investigators say the evidence has compelled them to consider.